Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend
by Phonius Pwnage the 3rd
Summary: When word gets around that Jaune Arc has an ex-girlfriend, several questions began to pop up in people's minds. Who was this mysterious ex-girlfriend? Did she even exist? Why did she and Jaune break up? Something didn't add up and you can bet Team RWBY is gonna find out what. It's time to start Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend!
1. The Blue Bella

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to a a short story that appeared in my head after watching an episode of "Fate/Zero", great show that I recommend you watch. In it it showed the unhealthy obsession that Caster, AKA Gilles de Rais (He was an actual figure in French Army, who fought alongside Joan of Arc and gave rise to the fictional tale of "Bluebeard"), had on Saber, AKA Artorias/King Arthur, simply because she just so happened to look similar to the object of his affection, Joan Of Arc.** **But seeing as Jaune is the genderbent version of Joan Of Arc, I decided to make the OC into a female.**

 **Also note that since this is a short story it will not be added to the main scheduling system and will only be updated once a new chapter has been added on.**

 **Beyond that,** **I hope you guys enjoy it.**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter One

"You had a girlfriend!?" shouted a very wide eyed Ruby, slamming her open handed palms down onto the table with a mighty slam, alerting almost everyone in the cafeteria to their current ongoing conversation. That is until a frantic and panicky Jaune quickly silenced her by covering her open mouth with his palm before searching around the cafeteria like prey searching for a predator.

Satisfied that most everyone had decided to ignore Ruby's outburst, Jaune pulled his hand away from her mouth before ducking his head as low as it could go down onto the cafeteria lunch table. The strange looks he was receiving from his friends only continued to fuel his growing anxiety, especially the look his own partner, Pyrrha, was giving him. Which seemed to be a mixture of shock and jealousy, though he couldn't understand as to why that was before choosing to address Ruby's sudden outburst.

"Ok, yeah, I HAD a girlfriend. Back before I decided to come to Beacon to be a Huntsman, I met this girl and we decided to date for a while but in the end it just didn't work out so we ended it. OK? Now cane we PLEASE drop this?" he ended his explanation with a plea but the very impish look he was getting from Yang only seemed to give him his answer, making his sigh in agony.

"Sooooo, Vomit Boy had a mysterious girlfriend? Did you two do that twisty tango? The horizontal wrestle? The-"

But thanks to the intervention of Weiss, who quickly silenced her rambunctious teammate with a palm over her mouth, that is until Yang gained a Cheshire grin behind the hand and straight up, licked the inside of Weiss's hand. The ensuing lick from Yang causing Weiss to scream out, pulling her hand away from Yang's mouth before shaking it frantically in the air and sending Yang's saliva everywhere while muttering "Gross" multiple times.

Yang, seeing this, began to laugh aloud as tears of joy streamed drown her cheeks while Weiss, cleaning her hand with a glob of hand sanitizer, glared at her with a vengeance.

"You are such a child, Xiao Long." said Weiss, still cleaning her hand of Yang's disgusting germs as Yang playfully shook her chest in Weiss's face.

"Oh really? Does a kid have bazookas like these, Weiss Cream?" asked Yang, egging her furious teammate while the rest of the table watched in silence and Jaune silently thanked the much needed distraction.

"So, did you guys do it?" asked Nora, her mouth filled with pancakes before scarfing them down like a human vacuum cleaner and causing Jaune to curse the world in silence.

"No, Nora. We didn't "do it"." said Jaune, unaware of the look of utter relief plastered on his partner's face before hiding it when he turned to look at her. "Thankfully..." he said silently to himself as Blake's bow twitched.

But before anyone could ask anything more about the mysterious ex-girlfriend the sound of a bell rang throughout the cafeteria, alerting the students to the end of the lunch period and giving Jaune ample time to make his escape as he stood abruptly with his empty tray in hand.

"So sad I couldn't answer anything else but you heard the bell, sooooo...BYE!" shouted Jaune, zooming his way through the crowded cafeteria that could put Ruby's own speedy semblance to shame. All the while the rest of Jaune's friends watched as their scraggly, blonde knight zip away from their ever-growing questions about his mysterious ex-girlfriend.

It was only after a moment of silence that someone was finally able to make a comment on Jaune's strange behavior.

Unfortunately, that comment came from the mouth of a fellow blonde.

"Well, that was a thing." said Yang, taking one last bite of her food.

Throughout the rest of school's day it had slowly started to become painfully obvious that Jaune was avoiding them. This became evident because every time any of them attempted to start another conversation about his mysterious ex-girlfriend he'd either come up with an excuse or just run at the sight of them. And all it was doing was making them more and more curious about his mysterious ex-girlfriend.

Finally, after the end of the school's final bell, signalling the end of the school day and the start to the weekend, it came time for Ruby and the gang to corner Jaune into answering their questions.

Whether he wanted to or not.

In the empty hallways of Beacon Academy, behind one of the far back corners was Jaune Arc, hiding from the inevitability that was his friends. Deep down he knew it was a mistake telling them about his ex but they had pushed his pride into it. Only now it had opened the can of worms that just refused to be kept shut and now he was on the run from his pursuers. Thankfully, he had long since came up with a foolproof plan as he placed his disguise on his face; a fake pair of glasses and a taped on mustache.

Foolproof.

After inching his head from behind the corner, where he was hiding, a sigh of relief escaped between his lips as he saw no one in sight. Stepping from behind his hidden sanctuary, Jaune began to plot out his course of escape. First, he knew that his friends would undoubtedly place themselves at the school's entrances and would no doubt enlist the help of their allies. Second, they'd most likely be led by Ruby, who was an excellent leader but it was her naivete reckless abandonment that would throw their group into chaos. Third, his most likely enemy would be Pyrrha, what with her polarity and everything, which would mean Jaune couldn't bring anything of metal with him. This would place him as an underdog but it would also grant him some inkling of an advantage against her. Fourth, if the entrances and exits were being blocked off then that would mean his last resort would be to sneak out using the teacher's lounge's back exit. Thank brothers above he was able to manage to memorize the school's layout in such a short amount of time. The problem was only a faculty member had access to the lounge at all times. Professor Ozpin and Glynda were an obvious no-go and Dr. oobleck was no doubt in a stupor over his latest historical discovery and Professor Peach was nowhere to be found...Which meant there was only one option left and unfortunately it was the last option Jaune ever wanted.

His last resort was...Professor Peter Port.

Slowly, making his way towards the Grimm Anatomy classroom, where Professor Port was most likely located, always making sure to check his surroundings for any semblance of his allies-turned-enemies. Blake and Ren would be his smallest concerns just due to their stealth-like tactics while Nora and Yang would only cause his trouble should he attempt the more direct approach. But overall, it was Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha that would be his great concerns, mainly due to Pyrrha's experience, Ruby's semblance, and Weiss's Dust.

Overall, Jaune had his works cut out for him.

But that only make victory all the more sweeter should his plan work out in the end.

As he neared the entrance to Professor Port's classroom, a feeling of foreboding crossed his mind at the sight of the slightly ajar door. Was Professor Port away from the room or was this a trap set by his friends?

There was only one way to find out as he crouch walked closer to the opened door. Sliding his head to where he could view through the opening, Jaune noticed the silhouette of Professor Port standing in front of his desk with the teacher's lounge punch card hanging loosely off his back pocket.

But despite his otherwise quirky demeanor, Jaune was anything but completely stupid. He knew that sneaking up on an expert huntsman would only spell his doom. That left him one option left as he slowly opened the door only for a bucket filled with ice to come crashing down on his head. Knocking him unconscious as the rest of his friends came out of hiding and the "real" Professor Port to turn around to reveal Nora and Yang wearing an oversize trench coat.

Seeing their unconscious friend lying on the ground, the group began to crowd around him with Ruby glaring at her partner, Weiss, as the bucket of ice was clearly her idea. But seeing as arguing wouldn't get them to where they desired to be, the group of friends decided the tie their target up and deliver him to the extraction zone...Team RWBY's dorm room.

Along the way, Sun and Neptune suddenly showed up in their path and the sight of Jaune's being carried by Nora only seemed to make them back away in fear, only to follow them towards the dorm rooms.

Hell, not even Ozpin wanted a part in their mischievous givings as he regarded the group with a solemn nod and a sip of his coffee mug before moving about his business.

Finally, the group was able to make their way into Team RWBY's dorm room, where they quickly tied the young knight to a chair and placed him in the middle of the room with a single dangling light bulb to light up the otherwise dark room. Their murmurs eventually waking the sleeping knight from his forcible slumber to find himself with an ice pack strapped to his head and his friends in the darkness of Team RWBY's dorm room.

"Um, guys? What's going on?" he asked, though already knowing the answer to his question while simultaneously hoping for an alternate one. Suddenly, Ruby stepped forward into the light, his head kept covered by her red hood, giving her a murderous appearance.

"Jaune Arc, you have been brought to our secret lair to answer our questions..." she said in an echoey voice thanks to an app on her scroll.

"Ruby, I'm going to tell you guys anything and this isn't a lair, it's your dorm room." Jaue argued making Ruby drop her hood and switch on her puppy dog eyes.

Unfortunately, this did little to Jaune's psyche due to growing up with seven sisters. Throughout his years of living Jaune had grown immune to the dreaded "Puppy Eyed Stare" thanks to his training and multiple sisters, who would force you do whatever it was they wanted should you show any sign of weakness.

"Sorry, Crater Face, but I grew up with seven sisters, you'll have to try harder than that." Jaune egged on when suddenly he felt his chair tip backward and found himself staring into the terrifying red eyes of Team RWBY's explosive brawler, Yang.

"Then how about we use some hardcore interrogation practices, eh Vomit Boy?" threatened Yang, cocking her shotgun gauntlets.

But no sooner had the words left her mouth, Yang soon found herself being berated by her own little sister as they whispered in the darkness. Then reappearing in the light with a sheet of paper as the life drained from Jaune's face at the horrible sight of the paper's title.

"Yang's Crime & PUNishment Volume 45."

"No, please. Anything but that." he pleaded as Ruby's smile slowly shifted into one of torturous indifference.

"I'm sorry Jaune, but you left us no other choice." said Ruby, opening the massive sheet of paper to it's first page. "What do you call a crumbled-up piece of paper?" she asked, watching with hidden glee as Jaune shook his head while shaking in his tied-up chair. "A piece of SHEET." she finally said as Jaune groaned and cringed at the terrible joke while Yang snickered at it. "I'd say another paper-related joke but..." she stopped just to watched Jaune squirm about. "I'm afraid it's pretty TEAR-A-BLE." said Ruby as Jaune groaned louder and Yang snickered ever more. "I once challenged a farmer to a sheep shearing contest. When he asked if I could do it, do you know what I said?" she asked as she watched her best male friend squirm in his seat. "I SHEAR can!" she said as Jaune released a final groan of agony.

"ALRIGHT! I'll tell you just please no more awful puns!" he pleaded as Ruby handed Yang her pamphlet of puns, ignoring her older sister's murmurs about her great puns before walking over to the wall and flipping on the switch to reveal everyone else was wearing ear muffs to save themselves from Yang's terrible puns.

After the others removed their protective ear wear they all took their placements around Jaune, who was kept tied to the chair as to keep him from escaping though there was very little chance of that happening considering who he was surrounded by but it pays to be prepared, even with unassuming people like Jaune.

"OK, Jaune. I know this may be rude but I have to ask...Is your ex real?" asked Ruby, flinching at Jaune's angry glare only to be silenced by Weiss's own glare.

"Come off it, Arc. Is it really so wrong that we would be the least bit suspicious over your "girlfriend"?" asked Weiss, her words causing Jaune to release a sigh and shake his head in understanding.

"Yes, Ruby. She's real." he answered when Pyrrha stuck her hand up, calling for her partner's attention. "Yes, Pyrrha?" he asked.

"What is her name?" she asked, keeping her true feelings hidden by masking them as simple curiosity.

"Bella...Bella Bleu." said Jaune, frowning at the mentioing of her name before shaking from a sudden chill.

"Bella Bleu? Wait, the actress?" asked Neptune, causing everyone to turn and look at him in confusion. "What? She's an actress back in Mistral. Does a lot of romantic dramas and stuff like that." said Neptune before turning to look at Sun. "Come on, Sun, you remember her. She was in that romantic comedy with Spruce Willis." though at the hearing of his words Sun merely had a bored expression on his face as he dug into his ear with his tail.

"Man, Nep, you know I don't pay attention to boring stuff like that." said Sun as his partner sighed in annoyance over his leader's uncultured attitude while Weiss turned to look at Jaune with mild annoyance.

"I thought you said she was REAL, Arc?" asked Weiss, crossing her arms and turning her nose up in disgust over Jaune's blatant lie.

But Jaune was not one to be called a liar, especially when said person calling him such was someone like Weiss.

"She IS real, Ice Queen. Like I said, this was before I came to Beacon. She left to go to Mistral and become an actress while I stayed behind to start training for Beacon." said Jaune, frowning over his friends not believing him though even he had to admit that if he hadn't been the one to date Bella then odds were he wouldn't believe it either. "We lived in the same town out in the outskirts and she always said her dream was to be an actress. So when she finally got an audition and got the part she knew it mean she'd have to leave to go to Mistral and we decided to end our relationship there to spare each other of the long distance thing." said Jaune, ending it with a lie that Weiss luckily picked up on.

"Okay, let's say we do believe you. Why on Remnant would you break up with someone like Bella Bleu?" asked Weiss, still having her arms crossed over one another.

It was here that everyone noticed a quick shift in Jaune's demeanor as he began to sweat ever so slightly while taking quick looks around him as if he was searching for something or rather someone.

"We just didn't want to deal with the long distance thing, OK?" he asked almost trying to make himself believe his own lie.

"That's a lie." accused Weiss, standing from her spot as she stomped towards Jaune, placing her hands on the chair's back and getting near his face. "The truth, Arc. Now." she commanded as Jaune began squirming in his chair.

"NEVER!" shouted Jaune, his sudden outburst causing Weiss to jump away from him with a yelp as Jaune managed to break free of his bondage. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out one of the smoke bombs that Blake often used in her "hunts". "Ninja vanish!" shouted Jaune as he threw the smoke bomb onto the ground, filling the room with smoke and temporarily stunning his friends as the sound the breaking glass rang through their ears.

"Pyrrha!" shouted Ruby, signalling for Pyrrha to use her semblance.

But it was already too late. In the ensuing chaos, Jaune had just barely managed to slip his armor off of his body, keeping him safe from his partner's polarity and allowing to escape relatively unscathed as the smoke cleared from Team RWBY's dorm room.

"Man, I didn't think Jaune had it in him." said Sun, commenting of Jaune's sudden prowess in tactical planning and execution.

Silence filled the dorm room as they all watched their friend run through the courtyard of the school and away from them into sweet, sweet freedom. It wasn't until Ruby looked down at her feet that she noticed a very peculiar sight on the carpeted dorm room floor.

It was a scroll.

But not just any ordinary scroll.

It was Jaune's scroll.

Plucking the miniature electronic device from the ground, the red reaper twisted her gaze onto her fellow allies, each of the contemplating on what to do about their very recent discovery. As Ruby held the scroll in her pale white palms, feeling the smoothness of the casing, the sudden sound of the scroll's ring and subsequent picture appeared on his screen, spooking Ruby into throwing the phone which then landed on Neptune's lap. The blank caller ID on the screen throwing him for a loop as he began wondering if the person calling him was a salesman but at the behest of his fellow partners-in-crime, Neptune quickly swiped yes on the holographic screen. His eyes widened at the sight of a beautiful girl on the other side of the screen, one with flowing blue hair with light blue highlights and bright orange eyes.

And unlike his partner, Neptune knew exactly who this girl was. From her first debut as a princess to her latest film as a kickass huntress. Oh, yes sir, there was absolutely no doubt in his mind who this magnificent woman was.

It was none other than Bella Bleu.

Jaune's "fake" ex-girlfriend.


	2. Questions and Answers

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to the 2nd chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **Holy freaking god, did I get some notifications! I'm not even joking here, I woke up the very next day after the release of the first chapter and I had over 100 notifications from the website. Some were Reviews, which I love to read, while most of the notifications were from readers who decided that this was story worth following and favoring.**

 **And I can't even begin to describe just how much joy I got when I saw all of it.**

 **I was so inspired that I immediately started working on the 2nd chapter throughout my entire day off! I'm so glad you're all enjoying this story and I can only hope that I can meet your expectations.**

 **Thank you all so, so, SO much for all of your love and support.**

 **Now, once again, as this is more of a short story it will not be added to the main roster but I will be working on the chapters provided I finish up with the week's main chapter. So odds are these will be updated alongside each new chapter every Sunday unless I run into a roadblock, which I will then notify all of you about the problem and when I can hopefully get fixed.**

 **Make sure to Follow, Favorite, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Two

Dumbfounded.

That was the exact expression everyone within Team RWBY's dorm room wore as they all stared, open mouthed, at Jaune's scroll. Their reason why was in actuality a very simple reason. You see, throughout the day Team RWBY and company had learned that their friend, Jaune Arc, had been dating a mysterious girl back before he decided to attend Beacon Academy. That same ex-girlfriend then went on to become a very famous actress in Mistral.

The only problem was that none of his friends believed his statement, some...Weiss...even going so far as to call it a straight up lie. It wasn't until Jaune had made his triumphant escape from their interrogation and mistakenly dropped his scroll that they all learned the truth. When his scroll had rung and poor Neptune answered the call, no one could've guessed that Jaune's "fake" ex-girlfriend was in truth, the very same actress they had called him a liar for.

The girl, staring back at their dumbfounded faces in confusion, was none other than Bella Bleu, the high prime actress of Mistral.

"Um...Can I help you?" asked Bella, staring at them with a mixture of confusion and worry as they only continued to stare her face with open mouths. "I..Is Jaune there?" she asked with an adorable stutter at the beginning.

Finally, Weiss, among all others, was somehow able to find her voice as he took in a huge intake of air, filling her lungs before exhaling, calming her nerves as she took the scroll from her crush's hands. Noting his still dumbfounded expression and shaking palms that she strangely enough for endearing before turning her attention onto Bella Bleu.

"Greetings Ms. Bleu, I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." said Weiss, making a slight bow in the scroll's camera just as Bella's orange eyes widened in realization and a smile was plastered on her face.

"Oh! You're Weiss! I know you. You're a member of Team RWBY, right?" she asked, clasping her hands together as the rest of Team RWBY squeezed into frame, each of them looking slightly confused as to how an actress from Mistral could possibly know who they were.

"Excuse me, Ms. Bella, but um...How is it that you know who we are?" asked Ruby, her silver eyes looking into the bright orange of Bella's joyful gaze.

"Oh, Jaune told me all about about you four girls." said Bella, waving her right hand out of frame, smiling as the rest of Team RWBY watched from behind Jaune's screen, looking at each other in slight surprise.

"Really?" asked Yang, mashing her head into frame and nearly smacking her little sister with her "assets."

Bella smiled and nodded in reply to Yang, lifting a book from out of frame and holding it up to see for the girls. The little notebook was elegantly titled as "VIP Information." After opening it to the first page, Bella began to read off exactly how Jaune had met each of the girls of Team RWBY.

"Ruby Rose." said Bella, starting with the leader of Team RWBY and best female friend of the blonde knight. "You and Jaune met after a fight between you and Weiss, which resulted in you causing an explosive Dust reaction and thereby creating a small but still fixable crater in the school's courtyard. Afterwards, Jaune introduced himself to you and said his patent motto taught to him by his sweet mother, "strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." Correct so far?" asked Bella, putting her notebook down to look at the little leader, seeing her nod ever so slowly. "Then you should him the weapon you made during your enrollment at Signal Academy, Crescent Rose I believe she's called. Very impressive by the way." she complimented, making Ruby gush bashfully at the compliment. "Then you two went inside where Jaune met Weiss and Yang."

Feeling a mixture of impressed and creepy, the four girls of Team RWBY watched the still gleefully smiling face of Bella Bleu as a singular thought ran through each of the girls' minds.

Why did Jaune and Bella break up?

It was plainly obvious they weren't going to get their information from Jaune, seeing as he was willing to jump through a 3rd story window just escape them. And considering the person they wanted information about was staring at them just beyond an electronic screen, it was if they were delivered the prime primordial information on all things Jaune.

And they were not about to waste this opportunity.

"Ms. Bleu, would it be alright if we asked you some questions on your relationship with Mr. Arc?" asked Weiss, turning on her professionalism just as Bella blinked owlishly at the question.

After getting an agreement from the person-in-question and finally narrowing down their choice in question to one per person, totaling to exactly 9 questions. Eventually, the group was able to hook Jaune's scroll into the holographic projector in the dorm room, allowing them a wider viewing of Bella Bleu and gifting her with the same effect. They had decided the rotation early on with Team RWBY going first then the remaining Team JNPR and then finally ending it with Sun and Neptune.

The first to go was Ruby Rose as she took her spot in front of the camera, fidgeting with her little piece of paper as she was watched intensely by the actress.

"Ok..Um..Sorry, just a little nervous." Ruby apologized, making Bella smile sweetly at the little huntress.

"Oh, it's quite alright. I'm well used it it by this point. Please, take a short breath and cal your nerves. It does wonders for stage fright." advised Bella, watching as Ruby followed per her instructions. Her silver eyes widening as she found herself to be much calmer than before and with this thought in mind, Ruby readied herself for her first question.

"How did you and Jaune meet?" she asked, causing Bella to sigh as fond memories entered her mind.

"I believe we met when we were roughly 3 to 4 years old when my family and I moved to his town. I was playing out in the playground, sadly alone as I had not made any new friends. I always noticed Jaune running around with a little wooden sword always playing "Huntsmen Vs Grimm" with his friends. Well, one day, I was being picket on by a group of school bullies when Jaune surprisingly appeared from out of nowhere. He had jumped onto the back of the head bully, a mean toddler named Brick, and bashed his head with the wooden sword. Unfortunately, Jaune was not a strong as he is today and was swiftly beaten by the bullies. But then he got back up and continued to defend me. It was so brave even if it was slightly stupid but from then on I always had a slight admiration for him and eventually that admiration grew into love." said Bella, wiping a tear of happiness from the corner of her eye as she reminisced the fond memories and Ruby stepped away and out of frame as Weiss stood to take her place.

"Ms. Bleu, what is it about Mr. Arc's overall personality that you happen to find "admirable"?" asked Weiss, holding a clipboard and pencil so that she may jot down any answers that she found questionable or worth looking into. And it wasn't as if the question was unwarranted, deep down Weiss knew that Jaune was a man with good intentions even if he was dense and annoying at times, she still respected him on a deeper level. Though there was no way she'd ever let him know that. Just imagining the inflated ego he would gain caused her to grind her teeth in frustration. Which was why she felt it was best to get an outsider's perspective, after all Weiss was raised in a very different environment and as such there were often subjects that she just felt ill-informed on.

"If I had to narrow it down to just a select few then I'd have to say it's her chivalrous nature that I find admirable. To Jaune it doesn't matter who or even what the person in trouble is because if he sees that someone is in trouble then he would gladly go to the ends of Remnant to help them. Even if it hurts himself in the process but I think I find even that admirable as it shows you that Jaune is willing to stand beside you even when the very world is against you. That's what I find most admirable about Jaune. I hope that answers your question, Ms. Schnee." said Bella, smiling as Weiss jotted down her last statement and gave her an affirmative nod.

Perhaps there was more to Jaune Arc than she thought. Weiss then stepped away from the spotlight, giving it to Blake who wore her trademark head bow to keep her Faunus traits hidden.

"Did you and Jaune ever engage in sexual intercourse?" asked Blake, her feline ear twitching at the sound of her partner groaning in disappointment while Bella's cheeks grew red from embarrassment, quickly losing her sweetly demeanor and replacing it with bashfulness.

"Yes, Ms. Belladonna, we did make love. I believe it was the night before I would leave for Mistral and Jaune said he wanted to make the night special. So, he made this romantic candlelit dinner and always making sure to whisper sweet compliments into my ear. Then we went upstairs to his bedroom where he took my-"

But before Bella could regale them with the story of how Jaune took her maidenhood, the surprise intervention of Yang quickly put a snuff to those misgivings.

"OK! That's enough for one day, it's my turn next and since Blake took MY question that means I get to ask a new one, sound good?" she asked, checking to see that Weiss had thankfully and forcibly covered her little sister's ears, saving her from having a VERY long and agonizing discussion on "the birds & the bees."

After getting a surprised head nod from Bella, albeit a very confused one, Yang thought about what kind of question she wanted to ask. She didn't want to ask the very obvious one, as she wanted to wait and see if Pyrrha was the one to ask it. It was very obvious to everyone who wasn't a dense scraggly knight that the champion of Mistral had a HUGE crush on her team leader. And since her partner stole her question that kind of put Yang into a bind over coming up with a question on the fly.

"I got it." Yang announced, her sudden outburst causing Bella to jump bit at the sound before regaining her composure and made eye contact with Yang. "Why did Jaune keep you a secret from us?" she asked, honestly curious to the strange and secretive behavior their blonde knight had shown them.

Hearing this, Bella couldn't help but sigh in sadness.

"I believe I can shed some light on this question of your's, Ms. Xiao Long." said Bella, watching through the screen as everybody in Team RWBY's dorm room scrunched together to hear her explanation. "When I was about to leave for my flight to Mistral, my manager said that it was best that no one knew of my past in Vale. Apparently there was this stigma about people from Vale and my manager was worried it may destroy my future image in Mistral. To me I thought that having to hide who I was and those I cared for was a line I'd never cross but at the behest of Jaune, telling me to go and achieve my dreams no matter the cost, I regretfully agreed. I can only guess that Jaune kept our past relationship a secret to protect my status." said Bella, frowning at the less-than-fond memory while Yang solemnly nodded and moved to let Ren and Nora take her place, an action that Weiss was quick to point out.

"Hey, I thought we agreed on one question per person?" asked Weiss, frowning angrily as Nora just waved her off nonchalantly while Ren sighed. And though Weiss wanted, desperately, to correct her sister team, a smile from Bella told her that she was quite alright with the proceedings, causing Weiss to sit back down with arms crossed and a huff.

"OK, you must be Nora and Ren, you're Jaune's teammates on Team JNPR, correct?" she asked as Nora's eyes widen to comedic levels before shaking her partner in rapid succession.

"Did you hear that Ren!? She knows who we are! She must be a psychic!" shouted Nora, hiding behind Ren's back while Ren only sight more from his childhood friend's hyperative and more-or-less dopey personality.

"She's not a psychic, Nora. She knows about us because she got the information from Jaune. Now, please, ask her your question." said Ren, adding a small percentage of begging to the end of his sentence just as Nora got out from behind him and prepared herself to ask Jaune's ex her very important personal question.

"Are you a psychic?" asked Nora, causing everyone in the dorm room to face palm themselves at the exact same time and all the while Bella just laughed off Nora's Noraness as if she had been friends for years.

"No, Nora, I'm not a psychic." said Bella, still smiling even after Nora groaned in disappointment before Ren took her place with her standing right behind him. "Yes, Ren? What is your question?"

"What was it that cause you and Jaune to begin dating?" asked Ren, holding his hands behind his back with a calm and calculating demeanor.

"I believe it was during our school's dance. I was asked by this girl name Lily if she wanted to go to the dance and I, not realizing the amount of affection she held for me, agreed and we went to the dance. It was there I was forced to watch this same girl berate Jaune for not having a date and this eventually caused everyone to begin making fun of him and he ran away, trying to save what little pride that monster of a girl had caused. I ran after him after giving that girl a piece of my mind and I managed to find him out on the playground, sitting atop the jungle gym and staring at the moon." said Bella, sighing at the memory. "Seeing him look so defeated, I knew I had to show him that there was someone out there who did care about him. So, I climbed my way to the top in my white heels and frilly dress and right at the top, underneath the soft glowing moonlight, I gave him my first kiss. We started dating not even a day later after that magical night." she finished, smiling as Ren smiled back and giving off a nod before he and Nora made their return to their seats.

But just as Pyrrha was about to get up and ask her own question, she suddenly found herself pushed back down into her seat with a hand cupping her mouth by Yang, who nodded over to Neptune and Sun about their last minute rotation change.

The two visiting students found themselves in the middle of a crossfire as both of the girls were glaring at them with the promise of unending pain but considering it was Yang whom they were mostly afraid of, it didn't take long for the two boys to quickly make their way into the spotlight. The sight of Bella's warm and kind expression nearly caused their hearts to melt on the spot but seeing this as their opportunity to prove their "coolness", it didn't take very long for them to start their question.

"So, I don't know a whole lot about Jaune but I've got a feeling you know some pretty embarrassing stuff, huh?" asked Sun, smirking with a wink while Neptune sighed with a disappointing shake of his head.

The sound of Bella's lighthearted giggling brought butterflies into their stomachs as her bright orange eyes glowed with fond memories.

"Well, there was this one time I found him dressed in his favorite blue bunny onsie, singing and dancing for his sisters." said Bella, softly laughing at the memory. "OH, how did that song go again? Oh, right! "I'm Mr. Bunny! I hop, hop, hop. I hop all day and I hop all night. I'm Mr. Bunny! I bounce, bounce, bounce. I bounce all day and I bounce all night. I'm Mr. Bunny! I thump, thump, thump. I thump all day and I thump all night." Oh, it was so cute that even took a video of it." said Bella gushing over the adorableness that was Jaune as Sun desperately tried to keep his laughter under control.

"Do you mind sending it to me?" asked Sun, snickering only for Bella to smile sweetly before saying.

"Nope. Neptune? You have a question?" asked Bella, smiling as Neptune found himself at a loss for words.

"ARE YOU SINGLE?!" shouted Neptune as his heart stopped from fright while Weiss snapped her clipboard in half and Bella's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yes, Neptune, I am still single but unfortunately I'm not look for a relationship right now. I'm sorry but I'm sure there's plenty of mermaids in the sea." said Bella, not aware of the damage she'd just caused as Neptune's face went deathly pale and Sun had to begrudgingly drag him off to the side to get some air.

Finally, it was Pyrrha's turn to step underneath the spotlight as she stared into the orange eyes of her crush's first love. Millions of emotions raced through her, some she knew well enough while others were strangely foreign for someone such as her. In Bella she saw a rival, whom had taken her crush's innocence but because of their distance it had left a scar on their relationship. One that had Jaune literally running just to avoid the pain that came with it. And now it was Pyrrha's turn to heal that scar but first she needed know once and for all where Bella stood.

"Bella...Do you still have feelings for Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, her heart tightening from anxiety as she awaited for her answer from his crush's first love.

And with a soft but saddening smile, Pyrrha knew her answer but that didn't make hearing it any more painful.

"Yes. I'm still in love with Jaune. And I'd do anything to see him again." said Bella, smiling sorrowfully as Pyrrha's heart ached like it was being placed into an iron maiden.

Every part of her wanted nothing more than to scream at this girl that Jaune was her's and her's alone. But after seeing how she was held herself, keeping herself strong despite the pain it felt both saddening and empowering for Pyrrha. Which was why she knew she would hate herself for what she'd say next. But she knew that Jaune deserved to be happy...Even if it mean she wasn't.

That's just how much Pyrrha loved her scraggly blonde knight.

"Bella, It would grand if you would visit Beacon Academy so that you may see Jaune one last time." said Pyrrha, smiling to mask her sadness while Bella's eyes widen and an ecstatic smile replaced her frowning face.

"Pyrrha, are you sure he wants me there? He's been through so much already and I'd hate to reopen old wounds." said Bella, trying to wipe away her tears while still smiling, just pushing the blade deeper into Pyrrha's heart as she forced herself through the agonizing pain.

"If I know Jaune as well as you do then I'm sure he would do everything in his power to prove his feelings to you. no matter the size of the wound." said Pyrrha as Bella jumped from her spot and started dancing happily before sitting back down.

"Oh, thank you Pyrrha! Thank you so much! I can be there by the end of the week. Oh and please don't tell Jaune, I want to keep it a surprise." she pleaded as Ruby and the rest of Team RWBY, save for Yang and Blake, stepped into frame.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Bella! We'll make sure Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend is a rousing success!" exclaimed Ruby, holding her thumbs up to the screen with a proud smile, ending the video with a happy send off. Feeling enthusiastic about their updated mission, the little red reaper turned to face her teammates with a wide smile. "Alright girls! Let's get started! First order of business...Find and capture Jaune!"

Let the hunt begin!


	3. The Gauntlet

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to chapter three of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **First, I'd once again want to thank you all for reading this short story of mine. Seriously, I love reading the reviews all of you leave on each chapter, even the negative ones as they can tell what it is I need to work on and what I need to explain.**

 **Which brings me to the elephant in the room, sort of speak.** **Jaune's friends.** **I know there's the whole "show and don't tell" thing but I thought it best to explain myself before this barreled out of control.**

 **Believe me I did not intentionally write Jaune's friends as pushy, nosy, and just all around "dicks." I'm still sort of a novice at writing and as such there will be times where my writing style may conflict with your perspective view point. I wrote Jaune's friends as a sort of "curiosity got the best of them" trope. Meaning that they're not doing all of this just to hurt Jaune but to learn more about him. And with Jaune choosing to run from his problems rather than confront them as he did with Cardin, they see no other option than forcibly confront him. To his friends they see a problem that Jaune is running away from and as such are tying to help him, albeit in a very bad way.**

 **I've more or less base them off of my own friends who can get so caught up in their own thirst for curiosity that it can blind them to the feelings of others even when they have good intentions.**

 **I'm sorry if my writing has offended anyone but again I am still a novice at writing and as such there will be times where I may accidentally offend someone.** **I do hope that you will still continue to read this story despite it's many current and eventual flaws.**

 **And another thing, neither Jaune nor Bella are literal reincarnations of Joan of Arc or Bluebeard. They're just allusions to their source materials. Sorry if this bothers anyone.**

 **Make sure to Follow, Favorite, and leave a Review.**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Three

"It has been nearly a week since my escape from that wretched place...To think my own friends would be hunting me like this...No matter, I know the truth and so long as I remain undetectable, the truth will forever be lost...No one must know of the past I held with her...I promised, after all, and an Arc never breaks his word." Jaune muttered to himself, poking his head of one of Beacon Academy's many, many, MANY waste disposal tubs or trash cans as many have taken to calling them. But that wouldn't stop Jaune in his efforts to avoid his prying friends.

Now don't get him wrong, he was plenty pissed at them for prying into his business but he could understand why. He did grow up with seven sisters and almost every single one of them wanted to know his secrets; sometimes to know their brother a little better and other times to mess and tease him. Even he had to admit that the lengths his friends were going to just find out his past relationship with Bella was just beyond insane. Most NORMAL friends would just tease him about him having an ex and just leave at that.

But his friends were anything BUT normal. Still, he was going his friends hell for putting through all of this.

Slowly, just barely cresting his blue eyes over the edge of the waste disposal tub, Jaune began scanning his surroundings until his eyes landed on an analog clock hanging on the hall to the far right of his current location.

"3:15." he muttered, crouching back down into his safe haven. "Thank brothers it's the weekend and I don't have to worry about class getting in the way of my escaping." Instinctively, Jaune once again reached into his jean pocket to grasp his scroll only to grab nothing but air. "I really need to stop doing that." he chastised himself again for dropping his scroll when he made his escape. "Such a rookie move too. Ugh, Jazz would never let me hear the end of it if I did that back home." he muttered, thinking back to all of the times his older sisters would tease him during his many failed escape attempts.

In his days of spending his days and nights roaming around the school grounds, desperately avoiding his friends-not-turned-temporary-enemies, Jaune has done a lot of contemplating. Maybe he going about this all wrong, was it really so bad if a select few knew his past relationship with Bella? They were his friends after all and it wasn't like they would use the information against him just to see his suffer. Heck, he was sure not even Weiss would go that low. Even if she did tend to give him a cold shoulder and abrasive attitude, Weiss was kindhearted deep down.

Maybe he should just let them catch him so he could explain himself? Maybe he could-

"There you are, Vomit Boy!" shouted Yang, pointing her finger at Jaune's blonde hair, the sound of her outburst causing Jaune to poke his head out, his eyes widening in alarm at the sight of Yang.

Or maybe he could continue running? After all, his life now depended on it.

Swiftly, with the grace of someone only Blake could hope to achieve, Jaune leaped out of the trash can, pressing his hand on Yang's shoulder to act as a leverage, pushing her out of the way and into the trash can. The motion granting himself an added bonus of getting just a few meters safely away when from out of nowhere Blake appeared with her ribbon, ready to trap him.

Silly Blake. He knew exactly what to say to her as a prideful smirk graced his lips as he ran towards her at breakneck speed.

"Hey! Blake! At the end of "Ninjas Of Love. Vol 3"!" he shouted, watching with hidden glee as her yellow eyes widened at his words as she attempted to quickly cover her ears, only to completely forget that she two sets of ears. "Takashi and Ashido-"

"Stop!" she pleaded as Jaune leaped towards her in desperation. Jaune gripped the middle of the ribbon, tugging it towards himself and Blake along with it. With ease he quickly tied up Blake's wrists and feet together. A secretive move he'd been practicing throughout his entire life.

Man, who know escaping seven very nosy sisters would help him later on in life.

But safety was of the essence as he booked it away from the fuming tied up Blake followed by a very flaming garbage-covered haired Yang. Perhaps he could've planned that better but considering no plan ever makes it after first contact there was little he could do about it now. But he was not one to let mistakes go unapologized as he looked over his shoulder to look at his two friends.

"JAUNE!/VOMIT BOY!" they both shouted as he continued to run from their well-deserved righteous fury.

"I'M SORRY!" he shouted, taking a page from his kind partner's book as he ran from the two angry ladies.

Quickly, he raced through the desolate hallways of Beacon Academy and as he rounded a corner, the sight of Nora's hammer missing his head by a hair nearly gave him a heart attack. Holding his hand against his still beating heart while releasing very ragged breaths as he looked up to see a still grinning Nora and a sighing Ren.

"Nora, we were told NOT to hurt Jaune, remember?" asked Ren as Nora giggled innocently while twirling her hammer like a baton.

"Silly Renny, it'll take more than that to take down our fearless leader!" she proclaimed as she hefted her massive hammer as Ren sighed once more and aimed his weapons at Jaune.

"I'm sorry about this Jaune. But it would better for all of us if you came with us." said Ren, genuinely feeling apologetic for what his team leader was going through.

The boys of Team JNPR stared deeply into each other's eyes. Cerulean blue meeting magenta purple. Since the beginning of their stay at Beacon Academy the two of them had grown closer than they had thought possible. One might even call them brothers. But now as they stared down at one another they both knew that on this day, at this moment, that they were brothers no longer.

"Sorry Ren but I made a promise." said Jaune, standing to his feet as he faced his teammates. "And I don't break my promises."

Silence filled the hallway where they stood like an empty poll being filled with water. The silence so dense you could through it with a blade as the three stared at their objectives. Two against one.

From her spot, Nora launched herself at Jaune with an overhead swing as Jaune rolled to the side just barely missing Ren as he appeared from behind with a pair of handcuffs. Backing away with a bound, Jaune pooled his aura into his legs, dashing in between the two of them in a desperate attempt to break through their defensive line. But when Ren manages to grab hold on his leader's foot, Jaune turned to look at his teammate, Nora, just as a devious idea entered his head. And with a smile plastered on his face, opened his mouth to speak.

"Hey Ren!" he shouted, causing both of them to look at their fearless leader. "Nora is in lo-"

But just as Ren was about to hear the words that were coming from his brother's mouth the sudden thump on the back off his head silenced all senses around himself as he collapsed down on the floor. Courtesy of his very partner, Nora, who's wide and worried eyes telegraphed exactly how she felt when he crush nearly became known and the one behind it all was none other than her own fearless leader, who smiled apologetically at his two teammates.

"Sorry Nora, but I can't let you guys catch me that easily." he apologized just as Yang and Blake both rounded the far corner, their eyes fuming with rage towards Jaune. "But I'll make it up to you." he said, reaching into his pocket as he pulled out a slip of folded up paper. "This is my mom's recipe for pancakes filled with blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry as well as a homemade recipe for the most sugary syrup known across Remnant. I bet Ren would be over the moon to make this for you." said Jaune, smirking as he watched in glee as Nora's eyes widened to comedic levels at the sound of his reward.

If she had that kind of pancake then there was no telling just what kind of hell she could raise. And the fact that would force her and Ren to be together more and more just made it all the more sweeter. So, with the leaping power of a kangaroo, Nora leaped at Jaune in an attempt to take the folded up paper.

Jaune just barely dodging her sudden move before placing his palm in front of the seemingly sugar-starving beast that was his friend before turning to smile at the onrushing Yang and Blake. With a devious grin and a chuck of his arm, Jaune tossed the piece of paper at the two running towards them. The paper landing in Yang's hands as she and Blake exchanged looks before turning to see a devilish Jaune and his rabid attack dog, Nora.

"Nora." said Jaune, his words causing both Yang and Blake to tense up as he pointed at them with his index finger and Nora raised her behind in a fluid motion. "Fetch."

Seeing foam leaking from the corners of Nora's mouth was WAY too much for Yang as her red eyes shifted back to their normal lilac and she held up her hands in a desperate plea towards her ally.

"W-Wait, Nora!" she attempted to shout as the rabid ginger-haired beast leaped at them, causing the two girls to scream out in fright and giving Jaune a prime opportunity to make his escape out of the school's main building and out onto the courtyard where he was greeted by the sight of Ruby and Weiss, standing in front of the statue that stood outside of Beacon Academy's main entrance.

A symbol to what the school stood for, that the Huntsmen and Huntresses were beacons of hope to the people and Faunus of Remnant and that we would forever shine through the darkened abyss.

But now, the statue had become an innocent bystander in Jaune's mission to escape from his friends' clutches.

To the left of the statue stood Weiss, dressed her pristine white combat skirt and wielding her rapier, it's revolving chamber filled with various Dust types. While to the right of the statue was his own Crater Face, Ruby, dressed her patent red hooded cloak and holding her handmade sniper scythe. Their eyes showcasing just how serious they were becoming and of the great lengths they're willing to go.

"You girls are really pulling out all of the stops today, huh?" asked Jaune, smiling as he felt very impressed by his friends' determination. Odds are they had Ruby to thank for their determination. Above everyone, it was Ruby who Jaune respected the most out of. Even through everything bad that had ever happened to her, she never once lost that innocent spark and it was that kept her team together and by extension their alliance. Without Ruby, the group would fall apart and Jaune would be free to avoid them.

At the behest of Jaune's question, Ruby stepped forward to face her first friend since attending Beacon.

"Jaune, it's been nearly a week. Please just tell us about Bella and I promise this can all be over and we can go back to normal." Ruby pleaded but the sight of Jaune's head shaking was all the answer she required from him.

"I'm sorry Ruby but I promised I'd never tell anyone." said Jaune, determined to keep his promise no matter what, even if costed him his friends in the process.

But just as Ruby was about to speak once more, she found herself cut off due to the intervention of her partner, Weiss, who held his open palm in front of Ruby, stopping her from speaking once more. Her icy blue eyes stared into Jaune's bright blue as Ruby watched from behind.

"Enough Ruby. It's obvious that nothing we say will convince Arc. That leaves us with no choice..." said Weiss as Ruby frowned, directing her eyes to the pavement.

"I know..." she replied dejectedly as she stepped from behind Weiss to face her target, her weapon in hand and it's magazine replaced with rubber bullets. Slowly, Ruby faced her friend with one last look. Then in an instance, Ruby's form disappeared in a flurry of rose petals while Weiss summoned several glyphs surrounding the area around Jaune. The white glyphs changing black as Ruby passed by them and Jaune was left with no way out of the ensuing entanglement.

As Ruby circled him once more, using some hidden tape she began to tape his body, using her momentum and Weiss's gravity-enhanced glyphs to capture Jaune. But Jaune was prepared as he stealthily unsheathed a hidden knife from his jacket pocket. Pressing his blade against the tape, Jaune watched as Ruby's momentum was veered off course, causing her to fly off, hitting Weiss in the process and allowing Jaune to escape before the remaining tape could trap him.

Rolling back a few meters, Jaune stood on his knees just as Ruby and Weiss got up to do the same.

Deep down Jaune knew they were going easy on him so as to not cause him any injury. And there was absolutely no way Jaune would ever want to hurt them either, no matter how much they annoyed him with all of they're prying. But just like them, Jaune wasn't about to give them a fair fight as he began charging at the two girls, chucking the knife to the side just as Weiss plunged her weapon's tip into the pavement, summoning several more glyphs that covered the pavement in a sheet of ice. The resulting technique, causing Jaune's legs to slip out from under him and to bowl through Weiss and Ruby.

With the two girls on top of him but still in a daze, Jaune attempted to get out from under them only to feel Ruby tugging on his pants' leg and for Weiss to be standing without fail on the slippery ice. Typical of her, seeing as she lived in a predominantly cold environment, it was no surprise that Weiss would be an expert on traversing ice. But that still left Jaune in a tight spot with Weiss readying her weapon and Ruby clinging to his leg like an adorable silver-eyed puppy.

With one last look, Jaune picked the little red reaper off the sheet of ice, putting her to the side just as Weiss jutted out her weapon, creating a funnel of wind that pushed Jaune off the sheet of ice and into the grassy courtyard. At the sight of Jaune rolling through the grass, Ruby quickly raced to Jaune's side, holding his head up as she turned to look at Weiss with narrowed eyes.

"Weiss! We agreed to not hurt Jaune!" she reprimanded her partner as Weiss waved her argument how with a flick of her wrist.

"Please, even if Arc is a complete dolt at combat, we both know it takes more than a harmless gust of wind to stop him." argued Weiss, crossing her arms as Ruby laid Jaune back on the soft grass before standing to face her partner.

"That doesn't matter! He's still our friend and we don't hurt our friends!" she shouted, causing Weiss to turn and face her team leader.

"Well, excuse me if having to chase this dolt around for the past week with little rest has me a bit irritated!" Weiss shouted back.

And soon enough the two partners were so busy arguing at one another that neither seemed to notice that Jaune had long since slipped away unnoticed. Filled with relief that his last second gamble had worked in his favor and without much injury besides a few small scratches that would be healed quite quickly thanks to his immense pool of aura. Jaune slowly began making his way down to the transport station that would take him into downtown Vale. If he was lucky, he could room with one of his sisters while they were in town. It was tough having sever sisters who frequently traveled Remnant for their professions but he was still proud of them. Or about as proud as a little brother could be for his older sisters. But now, he had a mission to do and the closer he got to the station, the more and more anxious he seemed to get and there was only one reason as to why.

Pyrrha had yet to show her face. Which could only mean one thing as Jaune spotted a familiar red ponytail and shining bronze armor. Pyrrha was their last line of defense and his last obstacle.

There she stood in the middle of the station platform with a still-closed off transport ship as it was currently engaging in it's docking procedure with her main weapon strapped to her back and her shield in hand. Clearly, Pyrrha would've used her polarity to snag any kind of metal on her body but unfortunately for her, he had long since abandoned his armor on day one of the hunt. Still, that didn't mean this would be a cake walk. Unlike the others, who he outsmarted using their own personalities and differing attack patterns, Pyrrha was leagues above the rest of them in terms of complete combative prowess. That meant that if Jaune were to somehow make it past Pyrrha, it had to be a carefully thought out plan.

Just the sight of her nearly had Jaune smiling. She always could light up his deary days with her smile and laugh. He was happy to have her as a partner and even more so as a friend. But today she was an obstacle that he needed to pass, no matter what.

Neither spoke a word as they readied themselves for combat, there eyes meeting as they slowly began to inch ever closer towards one another. The closer they got, the deeper the tension became as they readied themselves.

And just as they drew so close they were nearly touching, Pyrrha swiftly struck her hand out, reaching to grab at Jaune's collar but thanks to Pyrrha's insistence that they train up on his close quarters combat, he was prepared for her sudden strike as he grabbed her wrist, twisting his body until he was behind her. Only for her to break his hold by grabbing his own wrist and flinging him back over her body, slamming him on the ground. Then, using her own momentum, straddled his stomach, pinning his arms to the pavement as she leaned over him. Sweat glistening off of their bodies as they released ragged breaths, staring into each other's eyes.

Jaune looked into her glimmering green eyes as she loomed over him when he used her weight to flip themselves over, landing with him above her and her back to the pavement. The two continued to stare at one another for so long the neither had noticed their own friends had formed a circle and were watching them.

It wasn't until they heard tell tale sound of Yang snickering that they had taken notice of the position they were in.

"Now listen Cereal Girl, I know we said "catch him by any means necessary" but I don't think THIS is what we had in mind." Yang teased, smiling with a Cheshire grin as both Jaune's and Pyrrha's faces became red from embarrassment.

The resulting teasing was enough to causing Pyrrha to practically kick Jaune away further down the station platform, causing him to slide down the pavement until he came to a dead stop just as the transport ship was opening it's doors.

His eyes widened as he watched the doors that led to his survival open. His mission was a success and there was nothing that could stop him now!

Except the sight of a familiar length of blue hair and bright orange eyes filled Jaune with a feeling he hadn't felt in a very long time. Everything about this person caused a flurry of emotions to surge through his adolescent body. And when she smiled it was as if everything in his body screamed at him to do it.

There standing where his safe haven would've been was his ex-girlfriend, Bella Bleu.

"B-Bella?" he stuttered, watching with wide eyes as she sashayed down the ramp while he stood on shaking legs.

She smiled sweetly at his timid form. "Hello Jaune." she said, still smiling. "It's been a while, huh?" she asked while he struggled to find the words to describe his flurry of emotions.

But before a single sound could escape from his lips, Pyrrha stepped up from behind him, smiling sadly at her trembling team leader.

"She called you the day you ran away from us. She said she wanted to see you, Jaune." said Pyrrha, smiling sadly as Ruby stepped up to join her.

"Yeah, Jaune! She's been thinking about you every day since she moved to Mistral!" Ruby exclaimed, throwing her little arms into the air as Weiss joined her side.

"And don't bother trying to deny it, Arc. We already know you and Ms. Bleu have been conversing in secret." Weiss explained, crossing her arms when Yang and Blake joined by her sides.

"We get why you had to keep it a secret, Vomit Boy. But even you deserve to be happy, if only for a few days." said Yang, smiling proudly despite the garbage still in her hair.

"Yang's right, Jaune. We know you didn't leave on good terms but you can't just avoid the problem. Believe me, I know." said Blake, smiling her little ghost smile when Ren and Nora joined beside Pyrrha.

"Jaune, I care for you like the brother I've never had and I know that staying away from Ms. Bleu is causing you great pain. Therefore we had thought it best to invite Ms. Bleu to Beacon in order for you to make amends." said Ren, sighing as Nora jumped onto his back with a crazed smile.

"Yeah! And now that she's here we can all have those awesome pancakes!" she exclaimed, nearly rupturing Ren's ear drums.

Jaune looked back to see his friends' genuine smiles. It was obvious that everything they had done or attempted to do was due to their good intentions for their friend Jaune, who they had thought was in a depressed state do to them digging up old memories. A part of Jaune couldn't help feeling loved as he saw their caring smiles.

"Please, Jaune, I know we left our relationship off in a bad place. But I want to make amends for that, please give me a chance?" asked Bella, smiling sweetly as she opened her arms to embrace Jaune's form.

And as Jaune looked at his ex-girlfriend, her arms outstretched awaiting for his caring embrace, he finally realized exactly what his flurry of emotions were and what they were screaming at him to do.

"AAAHHH!" he screamed his trademarked "girlish scream" before running away from his ex and friends, directly towards Beacon Cliff. His friends and ex chasing him down just as he leaped onto one of the launch pads, the pressure sending the old gears into a while as they sprang to life.

In a desperate last plea to her first love, Bella reached her hand out to Jaune. "Jaune! Wait!" she shouted as Jaune stared back at her in utter fear.

"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU PSYCHO STALKER!" he screamed before launched deep into the Emerald Forest, leaving his friends and ex to stare at one another in confusion.

The group was in complete silence, save for Jaune's still girlish screaming as Bella had a goofy apologetic smile on her face, her shift in posture causing her to drop her notebook down in front of the group directly onto a page titled, "Operation: Save Jaune From Beacon."

It was starting to look like Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend had gotten a lot more complicated.


	4. Hunting Time

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to the fourth chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **I can't believe just how many are currently reading this story despite it's glorifying flaws. Thank you all for all of the words of encouragement as well as criticisms. You've all been such a big help to this novice writer and I'm so happy that I decided to start writing.**

 **I'll be honest, I haven't been feeling all that well due to a stomach virus thats been going around but I'm going to try to power through it so I can give all of you another chapter.**

 **And good lord jesus there's a heck of a lot of ya'll reading this short story. Hell, I even noticed that one of my favorite authors in following this story. So thank you all for reading along despite it's many flaws and I hope you enjoy the story in spite of it.**

 **Another thing, make sure to check out my other stories too, such as; "Don't Mess With An Arc", "Shadows Of Hope", "The Master Huntsman", "The Arcful Dodger", and "The Knight & The Wizard" (Heads up, the main character in this story will also be presented in another story written by Jauneforever, so make sure to check them out too.)**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review.**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Four

In a shocking turn of events it is revealed that Jaune's ex-girlfriend, the once thought famous actress of the Mistral region, is in fact his obsessive stalker, who's been following him ever since they were children. Jaune, who had been avoiding his friends like the plague, was now lost with the Emerald Forest after launching himself from the top of Beacon Cliff in a desperate attempt to flee from his "psycho stalker".

Now, in a bit of a conundrum, the group of seven friends had decided to split themselves off into two distinct groups. The first group, which consisted of Ruby, Yang, Nora, Zwei, Sun, and Neptune, would search the Emerald Forest for their lost friend, as they currently had no way to contact him while the second group, which consisted of Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren, would deliver Bella to the most responsible professor out everyone at Beacon Academy, Professor Goodwitch.

After safely delivering Bella, now handcuffed to prevent her from escaping, and her secretive VIP notebook to Professor Goodwtich's personal office, the normally calm and collected combative professor had this to say; "ARE YOU ALL COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!"

Needless to say, things were not looking up for the second group.

As for the first group, they were currently traversing the massive expansion of the Emerald Forest, searching for their friend Jaune. Luckily, they had the power of Zwei to help them succeed at their mission. Still, that didn't mean it was going to be entirely a cakewalk as they still had to deal with wandering packs of Grimm and considering that Jaune had quite literally jumped into an infestation without his weapons, meant that not even Jaune was having an easy time.

"Yang?" asked Ruby, her high pitch voice catching the attention of her older half-sister.

"Yeah, Ruby?" she replied, slowing her pacing to match her sister's while Sun and Neptune quickened their's to join alongside Nora and Zwei.

"Are we bad friends?" asked Ruby, looking up at her older sister with silver eyes full of sadness.

"What? No way! We're terrific friends! Anyone would be lucky to have us as friends." said Yang, smiling full of happiness while silently hoping her little sister wouldn't be able to see under her mask.

"Would Jaune?" she asked, breaking Yang's mask of happiness as she turned her head to look into the azure sky with a tired sigh.

"No. Probably not. Not after bringing in his ex-girlfriend." said Yang, causing Ruby to look downward with a dejected expression.

Every part of Yang wanted to do nothing more than make her little sister happy. And seeing her look so defeated was like stepping on her heart with a spiked boot. Some would say she was overprotective of her little sister, seeing as she 15 years old and by now should already be treated like an adult. But to Yang, it didn't matter how old her little sister got, she would always be her little sister and yeah, sometimes that meant she could be overprotective or annoying. But so long as her little sister could still smile then Yang didn't care about the insults of others.

But there was no denying that what she and the others had done to Jaune was too far this time. Not only had they essentially forced Jaune into avoiding them but they also personally invited the very ex-girlfriend that he wanted nothing to do with. And while Yang could attempt to try to convince herself that they were merely doing what they were doing because of what they thought was best for their friend. But truth be told, if wasn't going to happen now then odds are Jaune was going to give his friends WAY more than a stern talking to.

"Yeah, who would've thought a celebrity would be a stalker, especially for someone like Jaune?" asked Sun, turning his head over his shoulder to look back at the two sisters. "No offense to Jaune or anything. Guy's definitely pretty cool once you get to know him. Actually...Hey Neptune!" shouted Sun, catching Neptune's attention after he jumped into the trees to get a bird's eye view of the surrounding area.

"Yeah!?" he shouted back from atop the tree's branches.

"Didn't you tell me the other day that Jaune helped you out with Weiss at the dance?" asked Sun as Neptune leaped back down to ground level before placing his weapon at his back.

"That's right. Weiss asked me to the dance but I was sort of self-conscious about my well..." said Neptune, droning on as he still didn't want to admit it, especially in front of three attractive girls.

"Terrible dancing skills?" asked Nora, appearing in-between the two boys as Neptune looked away with a sour expression.

"Yes. Anyway, I said no to her and on the night of the dance, Jaune basically set me straight. Told me to just be myself. No flashy moves. No trying to hard. Just being myself." said Neptune, smiling at the memory. "I may not know the guy as well as I should but there's no doubt in my mind that Jaune is definitely someone you want as a friend."

The group remained in silence after the words left Neptune's mouth as Nora, Ruby, and Yang all had the same thought, _"Then what kind of friend am I?"_

After a few minutes, the group went back to work, searching for Jaune by following after Zwei. That is until they saw the little corgi stop in his tracks and plop his furry little tush down on the ground as he let out little whimpers, signalling that he had lost the scent. Seeing this, the little red reaper walked over to the sad little corgi, gently running her fingers through the fur on it's little head.

"It's okay, Zwei. We'll find Jaune, don't worry." she said, trying to cheer up the poor little corgi before she turned to face the others in her group. "Zwei lost Jaune's scent. Nora do you still have Jaune's weapon?" asked Ruby, watching as the hyperactive Valkyrie pulled out a familiar white heater shield and longsword.

"Got it!" she exclaimed, holding the weapon in the air before handing it off to Ruby, who held the weapon in her hands as the sun's glow glistened off of it's shining surface.

"Alright Zwei. Let's try this again." she said to the little corgi, kneeling down and placing the weapon near Zwei's nose where he then proceeded to sniff at it with purpose.

Afterwards, the little corgi stuck his nose into the sky, having one final intake of air before exhaling it through his nose and then began to put his nose to the grindstone, sort of speak. The little corgi quickly went to work, placing his nose close to the ground and waddling around sniffing for Jaune's scent once more. But when the little corgi once again sat on his furry butt and began making whimpering sounds, the group could instantly tell that something was amiss. If Zwei couldn't find Jaune's scent then that had to have meant that someone or something had taken Jaune.

In response to this harrowing situation, Ruby immediately unleashed her weapon, cocking it as she rechecked it's magazine before turning to face the others with a serious expression on her face.

"We've got a problem." said Ruby, watching as the others' eyes all widened at her words as they all had the same thought once more.

 _"Where are you, Jaune?"_

Back with the first group, they had all taken refuge within Professor Goodwitch's personal office, where they kept Bella tied to a chair in order to prevent her from escaping and where Pyrrha, Ren, Weiss, and Blake could all keep watch over her while Professor Goodwitch read over the notebook. The group sat in silence as the blonde-haired professor read through the notebook that held a plethora of information, most pertaining to Jaune while some pages held information on all of those that ever had interaction with him. And the more she read, the more concerned she became for Jaune Arc.

Every detail ever known about Jaune's history broadcasted before her very eyes and all from the mindset of, what she had thought to be, a well-behaved and ambitious girl. But now, all of that was quickly over-shadowed by her obsessive feelings of attraction towards Jaune. And all it did was cause great concern for the boy's safety.

Finally, after a few minutes of reading the notebook, and silently telling her to set up an appointment with her therapist, Professor Goodwitch gently closed the notebook's cover before placing it under her arm and exiting her bedroom to address the group. And what she saw only continued to cause the poor responisble professor much more strife as she witnessed Ren, Weiss, and Blake desperately trying to prevent a furious Pyrrha from strangling Bella, who wore a very smug smile on her face.

After having quite enough over the group rowdiness, Professor Goodwitch quickly activated her Semblance, coating Pyrrha's body in a purple haze of aura as she slowly began to levitate off the ground before being pressed with her back against the wall. And in a show of intimidation and habit, Professor Goodwtich glared at Pyrrha, a person she had thought would likely never be on the receiving end of one of her patent glares.

"Ms. Nikos, while I am understanding of your rightly deserved feelings of anguish towards Ms. Bleu, you would do well to remember that Ms. Bleu is still a civilian and as such any and all personal injuries received can prevent you from obtaining your Hunting License and could possible put you in prison." said Professor Goodwitch, deactivating her Semblance as Pyrrha was gently placed back onto the floor.

Turning to face the so-called "ex-girlfriend-turned-psycho-stalker", Professor Goodwitch sat down in a chair placed directly in front of Bella's. Flipping open the notebook to the selected page titled, "Operation: Save Jaune From Beacon", and holding it open for Bella to see.

"Ms. Bleu what I have here is an extremely detailed plan to sedate and subsequently kidnap a reasonably well-respected student and eventual protector of humanity. Not only is this HIGHLY illegal, it also violates many privacy laws that we hold in the kingdom of Vale. As such, given the evidence and the motive, it is very likely that should we deliver you to the proper authorities, they will put you away for a VERY long time." said Professor Goodwitch, frowning as Bella began to laugh hysterically at the stern professor's words.

"Ah, Ms. Goodwitch, have you ever been in love?" the obsessive girl asked.

Seeing no reason to lie, the combat professor chose that speaking truthfully would harbor no ill consequences.

"Yes, I have." she replied, raising her eyebrow in curiosity at her question.

"Then you must know that there is nothing that could ever stand in a woman's way of achieving true love." said Bella, smiling as she would at a wedding ceremony.

"Ms. Bleu, with all due respect, and trust me that respect is very rapidly depleting at an alarming rate, what you are feeling is not love but rather obsession. It is very common to get the two emotions confused due to their similarities." said Professor Goodwitch, folding the notebook closed and passing it off to Ren, who was standing by.

But Bella merely scoffed at this notion, furthering Professor Goodwitch's concern.

"You sound just like Dr. Wicker." she said, adding venom to the aforementioned name and piquing Professor Goodwitch's curiosity.

""Dr. Wicker"?" she asked, causing Bella's eyes to widen at her stupid slip of the tongue before snarling after knowing she'd been caught.

"He was the so-called "doctor" my parents hired to "help" me with my feelings towards Jaune. But all he ended doing was making me forget everything I ever knew about Jaune. I had forgotten him for so long but then I found that notebook and after reading it, I realized what that doctor did to me. He caused me to forget the love of my life. After that I knew I had that I relearn everything about Jaune, including who was going to be my biggest rival for his affections." she said, glaring at Pyrrha who returned her glare with her own.

"So, your family hired a hypnotist or at the very least an individual who possessed a mental-based manipulation semblance, who then proceeded to purge your mind of any memories, obsessive or otherwise, of Mr. Arc. But then, after coming into contact with this notebook, you regained those lost memories. But then how do you explain the additional information on those who came into contact with Mr. Arc?" she asked, watching as Bella gained a very smug smile in response.

"You'd be surprised just how much you can benefit from being an attractive actress. And a rising reporter is surprisingly very willing to break a few laws if it means they can advance in their careers." said Bella, feeling smug while Professor Goodwitch only sighed in response.

"Ms. Bleu, what are your plans for Mr. Arc?" asked Professor Goodwitch, crossing her left leg over her right.

"You read my notebook, you should know it." said Bella, frowning at the huntress when she continued to stare at her in silence, causing Bella to sigh. "I was planning to find Dr. Wicker and pay him to manipulate Jaune's memories. Then we would leave for a remote area and live out the rest of our days in true love." said Bella, smiling as Pyrrha's righteous fury as she once again was being held back by Weiss, Ren, and Blake from attempting to straight up murder Bella.

"You don't want to love Jaune! You just want to own him! Treat him like your own personal doll! Well he's more than that! He's brave even when he's scared! He's sweet and kind and charitable! If you're ever feeling sad, he'll gladly sacrifice his own happiness or even his pride just to see you smile! A psychopath like doesn't deserve someone has great and lovingly as him!" shouted Pyrrha, releasing all of her pent up anger when suddenly Professor Goodwitch's electronic scroll buzzed to life.

Plucking it from the top of her desk, Professor Goodwitch's eyes widened as several of the Emerald Forest's hidden cameras were swiftly taken out by a massive dark shadow. Causing alarm, the combative professor quickly replayed the last image on one of the hidden cameras to see a flash of Mr. Arc's body being carted away by a very peculiar Grimm with a red skull marking on it's body.

Seeing this, the professor stood to her feet, causing her chair to fall back and gaining the attention of everyone around her.

"We need to go to Emerald Forest, immediately." said Professor Goodwitch, rushing to gather her weapon and dome Dust, making sure to grab an abundance for good measure as her students watched her with confused expressions.

"Professor Goodwitch, what's happening?" asked Weiss, feeling quite frightened as she's never witnessed the usually calm and collected Glynda Goodwitch act so frantic.

"There's reason to believe that Mr. Arc has been captured by a Widower and if it has brought him back to it's hideaway..." said the professor, not bothering to finish her sentence as even the group could tell exactly what she had meant.

"But with no way to track the Widower, how would we be able to find Jaune?" asked Pyrrha, feeling panicky for her crush's safety.

"I know how to find him." said Bella, her usual expression having shifted into a very serious one and causing alarm bells to ring off in the groups minds.

"How?" asked Blake, feeling her ears twitch ever-so slightly.

"I've been following Jaune ever since we were kids...Plus, I may have placed a tracking chip underneath the sole of his shoe when he wasn't looking." said Bella, actually looking like she was embarrassed by the group's looks, causing her to blush fiercely. "Don't give me those looks! Listen, if you want to find Jaune then you're going to have to bring me along!" she proclaimed.

And before anyone to call her out, Pyrrha swiftly marched over to Bella, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt and pulling her up with her bare hands, glaring into Bella's orange eyes.

"And just what makes you think we'd believe a single word you'd say?" she asked, glaring at the girl currently in her grasp.

"It's fine if you don't want to believe me. But believe this, I'm not about to let some overgrown bug take my man away from me." said Bella, staring into Pyrrha's green eyes when suddenly she felt her bindings break away, causing her chair and bindings to fall to the ground while Pyrrha held her up.

When, from out of the corner of her eye, Pyrrha's sword floated just above her chest, it's bladed tip pointing directly at Bella's exposed neck. And just as quickly as Pyrrha's semblance caused the weapon to float, the black haze faded away, dropping the weapon into her hands as she glared at Bella's eyes.

"If you make one motion out of line then hunting license be damned." said Pyrrha, snarling as Bella giggled at her thinly-veiled threat as she pulled out her scroll, switching it on to show a radar screen with a rapid moving yellow blip and as Bella sashayed her way towards the exit, a hungry smirk graced her lips.

"It's hunting time."


	5. The Spider and The Flies

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to the fifth chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **This is shaping up to be my MOST popular story to date. Seriously, just waking up and seeing the number of people following this story as well as my other ones just continues to utterly blow my mind.**

 **Another thing, the reason I've been able to update this story at such a rapid pace is because I've been on a temporary holiday due to problems at work but I'll be going back starting tomorrow and as such the next chapter won't be coming until Sunday alongside my "Shadows Of Hope" story. Sorry if this bothers anyone, I hope you understand.**

 **Oh and while I will be explaining what the Widower Grimm is, it might be best if I added some references to get a better picture. The Widower takes it's name from the infamous Black Widow spider and it's appearance is somewhat of a mixture of the Gorgon, a monster from the Evolve Game and the Jorogumo, a Japanese Yokai that is the cross between a beautiful woman and a monstrous spider. (Also: Note that there will be PLENTY of OC Grimm types all pertaining to Japanese culture in my other story set to come out this Sunday; "Shadows Of Hope." Check it out!)**

 **Don't forget to have a BLAST during the fireworks display for America's birthday! Happy 4th of July everyone!**

 **Make sure Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Five

It was a literal race against time as Professor Goodwitch commandeered a bullhead from the station platform, ushering the group of students and one civilian into the massive hulking machine. It's Dust engines revving up as they slowly took off into the air and began sailing through the azure sky towards the sea of emerald trees. The group sat in relative silence with Goodwitch standing next to the exit, watching the tops of trees zoom past their vision while the children sat on either side of the bullhead's passenger seating.

Pyrrha watched with a judging gaze as Bella cradled her scroll like an infant, staring down at the moving blip as it raced across the radar. Holding it with such care that some could outright mistake her for being a mother. But Pyrrha knew better. She may have been tricked by Bella's sweet and innocent smile but now she knew the truth behind that smile. And while every single cell in her body wanted nothing more than steal her scroll and kick her out of the bullhead, she knew that in the long run it wouldn't do much but end her career before it even began. So for now, she would hold her tongue and hopefully before the day's end she may finally be able to apologize to her partner.

Sensing the tension between the two girls pinning for the blonde knight's affection growing the more the two glared at one another, Blake was silently thankful when Weiss decided to ask the combative professor a question pertaining to the mysterious Grimm that may have kidnapped Jaune.

"Pardon me, Professor Goodwitch?" she asked, hoping her voice could reach the ears of her professor over the roar of the bullhead's engines and rushing wind.

"What is it, Ms. Schnee?" replied Professor Goodwitch, signalling that she had heard Weiss's call.

"It's about the Widower. Professor Port has yet to tell us anything beyond the basic Grimm commonly found in Sanus." said Weiss, indicating that their Grimm Anatomy professor, Professor Port, had yet to instill them dire information that might've been useful to have given the circumstances. A fact that Professor Goodwitch was sure to point out to Professor Port as soon as her students were brought back to Beacon.

"It's no surprise to hear that. Widowers are a Class 4 Grimm that are very rare as they tend to rely on traps to ensnare their prey before dragging them back to their holes. It's there that they inject a slow paralyzing venom into their prey that keeps them in a catatonic state that slowly kills the prey. They're known to have acidic webbing that is capable of cutting through even the toughest of armor plating. Not to mention it's agile and generally relies on stealth tactics such as hit and run strategies to attack it's prey." said Professor Goodwitch, gripping the bullhead's side with an added grip.

"What does it look like? So that we know it if we come across it." asked Ren, holding his twin automatic pistols in his hands as Professor Goodwitch synced her scroll to the Bullhead's electronic system. As soon as she pressed a button on her device a small television screen descended from the top of the Bullhead's ceiling. The screen bloomed to life and on the projected screen was a horrifying sight.

It looked as if the Widower was a cross between a woman's upper body and a grotesque spider's lower body. It's only distinguishing feature was the bright red skull marking on the spider's abdomen. It was like something directly out of a child's nightmares, one that could terrify even adults.

"This is a Widower." said Professor Goodwitch, pointing to the Widower with her riding crop. "As you can see it's main choices of attacks are it's razor sharp claws and it's acidic webbing." said the professor and no sooner had the words "acidic webbing" exited her mouth the looks of everyone aboard the Bullhead slowly began to shift as they imagined Jaune hideously mangled due to the Grimm's acidic webbing. "Do not worry. From what I could gather by the camera's leftover recording, the Widower will most likely be taking Jaune back to it's lair." said Professor Goodwitch, granting her students some semblance of relief but deep down she began to fear for the worst as the flew closer to where Jaune's signal was coming from.

"But I thought Grimm only killed on sight, you know cause they're mindless monsters?" asked Bella, showing signs of concern over the enemy they were about to face.

"Juvenile Grimm are mindless because they rely on instincts rather than mental capabilities. However it is shown that Grimm whose lifespan exceeds that of juvenile Grimm will sometimes learn from their mistakes and adapt a better strategy in order to prolong it's survival. A prime example of this would be the Goliaths that roam on the outskirts of Vale. True they are formidable opponents but due to living for so long they have learned that humanity is not something so easily taken down. They know that should they kill one of us, a hundred more to take the place." said Professor Goodwitch, explaining the basic knowledge behind the Grimm. Though she couldn't fault Bella for being ill-informed as a civilian as no business out on the field of combat but due to their lack of time and even lesser resources they had very little say in the matter.

"Remind me again as they WHY we have to bring not only an untrained civilian but a psychopathic obsessive stalker along with us to rescue Jaune?" asked Blake, watching Bella with predatory eyes as Bella rolled her eyes at her before waving off her thinly-veiled insult.

"Because my scroll, just like your's, is fingerprint activated. Meaning that even if you really wanted to be able to use it without my presence then that would require to either hold me hostage or cut my finger off." said Bella, getting tired of spelling out just as why these bumbling morons needed her, regardless of their own personal criticisms and grievances.

"And another thing, just how is that you managed to get reporters to agree to sneak into Beacon Academy?" asked Weiss, feeling peeved that someone had knowledge that could be used against her.

But Bella only laughed at Weiss's question.

"You're under the impression that these reporters HAD to sneak into Beacon? Has it ever crossed your mind that some one the students may also have a personal vendetta against you, Weiss? Believe me, there's plenty of ways to achieve information. All it takes is to be well connected with the right people." said Bella, smirking deviously as Professor Goodwitch turned to look at her.

"Are you saying that we have spies at Beacon Academy?" asked Professor Goodwitch, watching through narrowed eyelids as Bella merely shrugged at her questioning.

"I'm saying that there are plenty of students that may harbor grudges against those in your academy. It's a big facility and odds are not everyone is going be on good speaking terms." said Bella, frowning as she went back to staring at her scroll, watching as the yellow blip continued moving at a rapid pace.

Professor Goodwitch went back to watching the scenery race past her vision as she began to contemplate Bella's words. It was true that Beacon Academy was a very large facility and as such it was near impossible for there not to be some bad blood between students or even faculty for that matter. Still, it always somewhat amazed Professor Goodwtich when she met visitors who knew so little about the on-goings at Beacon Academy. Some even thought their faculty was extremely limited to just herself, Professor Port, Dr. Oobleck, and Professor Ozpin but she'd constantly remind them that most of their faculty was busy providing education to their other students. But what she was currently trying to progress through her mind was how the Widower could've taken out the Emerald Forest's cameras without setting off the trigger for the alarm. It was certainly a fault that Professor Goodwitch was sure to investigate after this whole ordeal was done with.

And as the bullhead continued to fly over the Emerald Forest, Professor Goodwitch's eyes caught a sight that pulled all of her attention away from her current thoughts as she watched several of her own students in small patch of clearing fighting off several juvenile Widowers. Professor Goodwitch's eyes widened in alarm as she moved towards the pilot with haste.

"Take us to that clearing!" she shouted over the roar of the bullhead's engines. The pilot's helmeted face nodded in an affirmative manner before gesturing with his thumb to the students and civilian still locked in their passenger seats. Professor Goodwitch then turned to address her students and Bella, gripping onto the bullhead's side for balance.

"We're making an emergency landing to assist the efforts of the other students. They're currently surrounded by juvenile Widowers so that must mean that we're close to the nest. And while the Juveniles are considerably less of a threat than a fully developed Widower, DO NOT let your guard down. They may not have acidic webbing or a humanoid form but they're no less of a threat." said Professor Goodwitch, turning her head to address Bella. "Bella, you will remain in the bullhead while it continues to circle our location. Once we've cleared the area the bullhead will land and you will disembark and under no circumstances are you to wander off out of sights. You may be a criminal in the eyes of the law but you are no less human and as Huntsmen it is our sworn duty to protect humanity. Understand?" asked Professor Goodwitch, half expecting Bella to shrug off her instructions but found a tiny smidgen of respect as the civilian nodded to her instructions.

Eventually, the bullhead got as close to the clearing as it could without landing as Professor Goodwitch and her students disembarked and rushed out into the battle. Twisting her head, Professor Goodwitch watched as the bullhead rose back into the air along with Bella in it. This gave some semblance of peace of mind within Professor Goodwtich as she held her riding crop in her grip and activated her semblance. Soon enough several juvenile Widowers became covered in a purple haze as they all floated into the air as Professor Goodwitch rose her riding crop before bringing it back down and slamming the juvenile Widowers into the ground with enough force to destroy their fragile bodies.

A red blur of rose petals zoomed past the combat professor as she watched as several juvenile Widowers were swept up by the gale force of Ruby's sub-sonic speeds before launching into the air and unleashing her weapon. Using the recoil of the weapon's force, Professor Goodwitch watched with hidden pride as Ruby formed into a red cyclone, cutting the juvenile Widowers to shreds with her scythe. Off to the side Neptune and Sun were obliterating the scurrying Juveniles as Sun twirled his gunchucks, pulling the lever action trigger to fire off a volley of shots while Neptune remained in to the tree top, firing off bolts of electrical energy that chained with other juveniles. Over to the far left was Nora swinging her hammer and firing a bombardment of pink grenades at the juveniles while little Zweiss sat perched on her head. And through it all Nora laughed like a happy-go-lucky maniac. And standing in the middle with hair ablaze with fire, burning all of the juveniles that rushed towards the raging fire that was Yang Xiao Long.

Before long most, if not all, of the Juvenile Widowers quickly scurried away from the group as they all rushed down individual holes that led underground. Seizing the moment of temporary peace, Professor Goodwitch signaled for the bullhead to make it's landing. Once it had and Bella had disembarked from the flying machine, the pilot radioed that he can only keep the bullhead up in the air for 2 hours before needing a refueling. Which quickly put a damper on their already rapidly receding time on Jaune's rescue.

Releasing a sigh of annoyance, Professor Goodwitch turned her figure only to several people trying hold Yang back from turning Bella into a burnt crisp. Her yellow hair was lit up like a bonfire and her eyes shined like crimson flames as she struggled against the combined efforts of Ruby, Sun, Neptune, and Nora, keeping her from blowing a hole where Bella's head would be.

"Why is SHE here?!" shouted Yang, desperately wanting to mash the actress's face in until nothing remained only for her friends to hold her back.

"I'm here to safe my man, you blonde cow!" Bella shouted back, the word "cow" instantly having an effect on Yang as her anger grew to the point of causing a literal fire right where she stood.

"SAY THAT AGAIN, YOU PSYCHO STALKER!" shouted Yang, pushing her friends off of her as she began to step towards Bella, who held her ground beneath the angry gaze of red eyes.

"ENOUGH!" shouted Professor Goodwitch, wrapping everyone in a purple haze as she rose her riding crop, lifting everyone around her into the air as her green eyes burned with a furious anger. Pushing her glasses up the arch of her nose, Professor Goodwitch glared at her students. "I have had just about enough with your childish attitude. A student, your friend and leader, is currently being carted by a Grimm none of you have ever faced before. I don't rightfully care how much you may despise one another. But so help me, if your bickering is the cause of Mr. Arc's demise then I will personally separate the heads from your petite bodies. UNDERSTAND!?" shouted Professor Goodwitch, watching as her students and Bella nodded in quick succession.

It had been a while since Professor Goodwitch's old school personality came out in such full force. That wasn't to say that she never got angry before but the limits these children were punishing had nearly caused her to revert back to the dark days of her teenage years. After all, there was good reason why people referred to her as "The Witch of Beacon."

After safely setting her students down and deactivating her semblance, Professor Goodwitch eyed the various holes many of the Juvenile Widowers escaped into. Using a combination of Earth and Gravity Dust, Professor Goodwitch successfully raise the huge clump of earth from the ground, revealing a massive hole that surely led to the Widower's liar.

"Of course it would be underground." she softly said to herself before turning to face Bella, who held her scroll with care. "Ms. Bleu, where is Mr. Arc's dot located?" she asked the obsessive actress.

"About 1 kilometer north from where we are. His dot's not moving anymore, though I'm hoping that's a good thing." said Bella, worried about the safety of Jaune's life when Nora bombastically appeared with a happy expression.

"There's nothing that could take down our fearless leader!" the hammer-wielding Valkyrie exclaimed, holding her hammer in the air.

"Don't worry, Mr. Arc. We're coming for you." said Professor Goodwitch, pushing her glasses up her nose as they descended down into the hole.

After walking through the seemingly endless tunnels, carved into the earth beneath the Emerald Forest, Professor Goodwitch made a mental note to notify Professor Ozpin about this development. He's most certainly send either Professor Port or Dr. Oobleck to come and eradicate the Widower to make sure that no other students given a mission into the forest would suffer an ill fate.

There was also the problem with Bella's situation. From what she could gather in her investigation, Bella Bleu was not just an actress in Mistral but the daughter of Bernard Bleu, councilman of the Mistralian council. And that spelled infinite amounts of problems for Beacon Academy, especially if word got out about Bella's obsession with Jaune. It was possible that all records of Bella's past as well as her memories were swept under the rug if her father was trying to obtain the council's seating during that time frame.

That could possibly mean that even they do turn her into the proper authorities, the actions of her father could have her out with very little effort as well has place Beacon Academy into the crosshairs. The more solutions Professor Goodwitch attempted to create, the more problems just seemed to arise. She'd have to make sure to speak with Professor Ozpin about this dilemma.

But first, she had a student to rescue as they came upon a fork in the road, sort of speak, with two entrances with one going left and the other going right. Turning to face Bella as she glanced down towards her scroll, Bella looked towards the left opening before glancing back down and looking at the right opening. And Pyrrha, quickly growing impatient immediately stomped towards the actress.

"Well? Which way?" she asked, though her tone was anything but questionable.

"I don't know." she said sternly, watching as Jaune's blip refused to move from it's spot. "It says that Jaune should be right where we are."

"Well, he clearly isn't. So then tell me...Where. Is. Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, frowning with a hardened glare when Bella turned to face her, throwing her arms into the air out of frustration.

"This thing isn't exactly a map, Pumpkin!" shouted Bella, feeling frustrated that all eyes were on her and not for the reason she had grown so used to. "It's just a radar, meaning that it only shows me a general direction of where Jaune is. He could several feet below us and we wouldn't even know it." said Bella, causing Yang and Pyrrha to both get furious at her announcement.

"Are you telling me that you have no idea how to find Jaune?!" shouted Pyrrha, clenching her fists as she glared at Bella.

"No! I'm telling you that I have a general idea of where he is! And why the heck are you yelling at me?! I'm just supposed to know exactly where to go in this maze of tunnels?" asked Bella, glaring as Yang stepped forward the match Pyrrha as they both glared at the girl.

"You were brought along to help find Jaune and if you can't do that then you're just worthless baggage. Dead weight." said Yang, glaring at Bella, who stood her ground beneath the girls' gazes.

"The only reason I'm even here is because you girls decided to mess with something you had no business being in!" she shouted back, reminding the girls of who exactly decided to bring her to Beacon.

"We were trying to be friends to Jaune! It's not our fault you turned out to be a psycho stalker!" Yang shouted back, their continuous shouting drowning out the many scurrying sounds currently coming their way.

"He clearly didn't want to be bothered by you girls constantly bugging him! Some friends you turned out to be!" Bella shouted back, only adding fuel to the girls' anger as more and more scurrying sounds came rushing towards them.

"We only wanted to help him!" shouted Pyrrha, having never felt this intense about anyone in her entire life but there was just something about Bella's personality that had Pyrrha driving up the walls.

"Oh, like the time you helped him with Cardin!?" she finally shouted, extinguishing the burning rage that both girls had slowly built up and bringing up various memories as they remembered that though they knew Jaune was being bullied by Cardin, they had done nothing but sit back and watch.

And all it did was bring up the same question they'd been asking themselves every single day since the mentioning of Jaune's ex-girlfriend...Were they bed friends? But, sadly, this question would remain unanswered as the sudden forceful push from Professor Goodwitch shocked them out of their funks as she summoned a purple glyph that blocked the attack from the Widower, who had been drawn to their location by the girls' arguing. This prompted Professor Goodwitch to turn her head to face her students.

"Ms. Bleu, get back!" commanded Professor Goodwitch as she struggled to keep the Widower at bay with her barrier. "Ms. Nikos! Ms. Rose! When I drop my barrier, pepper the Widower with a volley from your weapons!" she commanded as Bella quickly rushed to the back of the group and Ruby and Pyrrha took their positions with their weapons at the ready. "Ms. Belladonna! Mr. Lie! Make sure to guard Ms. Nikos and Ms. Rose in case any Juveniles make it through!" she commanded once more as Blake and Ren took their positions next to Pyrrha and Ruby. "Ms. Xiao Long! Ms. Valkyrie! You are our vanguard! And under no circumstances are you to upset the structural integrity of the cave. That means no explosives! Does everyone understand?!" she shouted, sweat pouring from her glans as the Widower slammed it's clawed arms at her barrier.

Everyone nodded in silence as they readied themselves for their first battle against a Grimm beyond their level of experience. The purple barrier dropped and Professor Goodwitch jumped out of the way, the hiss of the Widower growing as it charged forward with vengeful purpose. And as soon as the Widower's further most prominent leg moved forward, it was soon bombarded with a barrage of gunfire from Pyrrha and Ruby while Ren and Blake quickly eliminated the many Juveniles that raced past the Widower.

Both Nora and Yang stayed back, guarding Bella from the Juveniles the made it past Blake and Ren as they obliterated each Juvenile with just their bare strength alone. And through it all, Bella watched from the background as she was blinded by the sparks of gunfire and deafened by the screams of the Widower and her Juveniles.

But despite the pepper spray of bullets from Pyrrha and Ruby, the Widower continued to move forward, powering through the barrage and moving closer towards them. Seeing this, Professor Goodwitch made a swinging motion with her riding crop, slamming the Widower into the cave's wall with her semblance. But the elder Grimm proved to be just too much for the combative professor as it powered through the purple haze and continued forward.

Eventually, the Widower smacked the four students backwards with it's lengthy arms, ending it's painful barrage from the four students and advancing towards Professor Goodwitch and her students. Suddenly, the Widower was shot by a high explosive grenade that came from behind the professor's back. Twisting her head to reprimand Nora of her idiotic mistake, Professor Goodwitch's eyes widened as she saw that Nora had been shoved to the ground and Bella was in possession of her grenade launcher.

"Ms. Bleu! Wai-" but her pleas fell on literal deaf ears as Bella screamed in fear as she pulled on the launcher's trigger firing a barrage of Nora's explosive grenades at the Widower. The resounding explosive force destroying the structural integrity of the cave around them and sending them into a free fall as the tunnel collapsed into a large cave opening.

Seeing the rapidly approaching ground, Professor Goodwitch summoned every ounce of her semblance's power as she summoned a massive purple glyph beneath them. Catching the students and herself as she slowly placed them down on the cave's ground with little injuries. But due to incredible amount of strenuous effort it took to pull off such a technique at the last moment, Professor Goodwitch had essentially exhausted herself trying to protect her students from themselves. Let it never be known that Professor Goodwitch never went above and beyond for the safety of her precious students. But that still left them without an experienced fighter against a Grimm that were well unequipped to face.

"I-Is everyone alright?" asked Professor Goodwitch as she struggle to sit herself up against a rock, hearing several groans from her students. Well, they weren't dead, so that was a good thing.

"What the heck just happened?" asked Ruby, coughing up some dust as she looked up above them to see a massive collection of webbing all around the cave's ceiling.

This must've been the Widower's lair. But then that had to have meant that Jaune was here! The sudden realization caused Ruby's eyes to widen as she searched the cave for any sign of Jaune and as she searched, her eyes came upon a strange sight, a bundled up collection of webbing was shaking about. Seeing this, Ruby raised her scope to eye level as she zoomed in on the bundle of webbing to get a better viewing. Slowly, the bundle spun itself around and Ruby's silvery eyes widened at the sight of Jaune!

"Jaune!?" she exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention up to where Jaune was hanging literally by a thread.

And Jaune, hearing Ruby's outburst, caused him to glance down at where his friends and professor were standing. His eyes widened at the sight of them as part of himself began to think that his friends wouldn't be able to rescue him in time.

"Guys?! What are you doing here?!" he shouted, thankful that the Widower's venom hadn't taken full motor control of his body.

"We're here to rescue you, dummy!" shouted Ruby, her voice straining from the dust still in her throat. "And we're here to tell you we're sorry for what we did! It wasn't right and we're SO sorry, Jaune!"

"Ok, Ruby, I am super thrilled you guys are here to make sure I don't get eaten alive but do you think you can keep your apologies to a minimum UNTIL I've gotten out of this!?" shouted Jaune, shaking in his bundle of webbing as Ruby scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

Suddenly, the Widower appeared next to Jaune's form, wrapping her left arm around his bundle of webbing as she prepared to crawl away only to be blasted by a single grenade courtesy of Nora. Causing the Widower to drop Jaune to the floor and Jaune to release his girlish screams. Luckily, his plummet was short lived as Weiss quickly summoned a glyph that caught him in mid-air and brought him to solid ground. The Widower released a booming hiss as it watched it's meal slip from it's grasp. Soon enough the cave was being swarmed with various Juveniles as the group all got into their positions, ready to risk their own lives to protect their friend.

They were outgunned, outmanned, and out of their league as the group faced overwhelming odds. But should they make it out alive, then perhaps maybe, just maybe, they could finally put an end to the problem they selfishly caused and finally gain Jaune's forgiveness. Because if they failed in their endeavor then earning Jaune's ire would the least of their concern as the Widower pointed a clawed hand at them, hissing at her Juveniles to swarm the group.

Looks like Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.


	6. Maze Of Lost Hope

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to the sixth chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **Things have been pretty hectic at work but overall, I'm glad the problem was resolved and I can finally get back to doing what I enjoy. Though with the sudden new schedule changes, this chapter will be significantly shorter in comparison but the next chapter will hopefully make up for the lack of content. As for the next chapter's release, seeing as I'm back to my normal work schedule and that this short story is slowly turning into an official story, it will be added onto the main schedule alongside my other stories.**

 **Thanks again to all of you for showing your love and support for this story. And no, I will never stop thanking you guys for reading my stories because it's just not in my nature to let a good deed go un-thanked.**

 **Also check out some of my other stories on my page, such as "Shadows Of Hope", released alongside this very chapter.**

 **Next Scheduled Release Date:**

 **July 15th: "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend - Ch. 07"**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Six

Jaune always wondered what it would be like to be one of those inflatable beach balls you'd see get passed around in rampaging stadiums filled with sports fans. Don't ask him why it was that we wanted to know what it felt like, he was at kid at the time. Well, now he had his answer as his cheeks puffed out and his pale white skin took on a sickly nauseous green as he was tossed around by his friends, desperate to keep him out of the Widower's reach.

It had became apparent that the reason the Widower was so adamant on obtaining to small ball of webbing that was Jaune Arc was due to the fact that the Widower's food reserves were running low as many of it's food sources had all been killed. And with people, be they students or otherwise, rarely adventuring within the Emerald Forest, the Widower's source of food was slowly becoming desolate. So when essentially a prime piece of meat shows up at your doorstep when you've been borderline starving, then there was nothing that was going to stand in your way.

Though his friends were certainly causing it plenty of grief as Jaune sailed through the air after being launched by Ruby, who swiftly shot the Widower with her rifle, over tYang, who was blasting every Juvenile that dared to crawl near her. The sight of Yang's fiery red eyes and glowing blonde hair always sent shivers down his spine, though thanks to the Widower's paralyzing venom, the most Yang's energy could muster out of him was a single twitch from his finger and landing on a ramp of ice created by Weiss.

Sliding down the icy ramp, Jaune watched as Weiss, using her glyph's, shifted the ice Jaune was on until it was raised high above the ground. But as if a little ice was going to be enough to stop the Widower's progress. After slapping the little red reaper away with it's clawed arm, sending her flying away from the group, the Widower began climbing the massive spire of ice, using it's claws as hooks, to capture it's source of food.

But Weiss was a few steps ahead of the arachnid Grimm as she manipulate the ice spire, jotting out several ice spikes along it's surface in order to put a stop to the Widower's progress. Seeing this, the Widower quickly leaped off the ice spire and onto a rock column, hissing at Weiss before climbing it's way to the cave's ceiling and leaping down upon the unprotected Jaune.

But before the Grimm could once again make it's getaway with it's prize, the arachnid Grimm was rocketed off of the spire by the sudden appearance of Nora, who held her hammed in her grip as if she was posing for a stock photo. Wrapping her arm around the ball of webbing that contained her fearless leader, Nora dropped from the top of the icy spire, breaking the spikes the lined the surface of the spire, sending them crashing down atop the various Juvenile Widowers before landing on the pile of ice, still holding Jaune. Seeing the rapidly, approaching Widower, Nora tossed the ball of webbing into the air, using the opportunity as the Widower followed after Jaune's only to be smacked by the destructive power of Nora's powered up swing, before pulling a trigger and exploding in the Widower's face and sending it rocketing across the expansion of the cave.

But even with Nora's destructive power, the Widower still somehow managed to pick itself out of the rubble, releasing another echoing hiss that summoned more Juveniles. Seeing the approaching swarm of Juveniles, Nora tossed the ball of webbing into the air where Blake, after using her Semblance, just barely managed to catch him in her gasp before rolling on the cave floor with Jaune in tow.

"Ughh...I think I'm gonna be sick..." Jaune struggled to say, afraid that should he speak for more than a minute, a waterfall of putrid vomit would be purged from his stomach.

"Sorry, Jaune, but so long as that Widower is around, this our best method of protecting you." said Blake, firing off a few rounds from her pistol as the swarm of Juveniles grew larger.

And even as the Widower made its way towards the two, thankfully the intervention of Pyrrha and Ruby halted it's progress by spraying it with a barrage of slashes from their bladed weaponry. With Ruby, landing slices on the Widower's lower limbs and Pyrrha blinding it with flashes from her rifle, the Widower was forced to back away as it turned around to launch a string of acidic webbing at the group. Prompting them to dodge out of the way as the Widower made it's getaway onto one of the cave's many stone columns.

With Blake, Pyrrha, and Ruby being so busy with protecting Jaune from the swarm of Juveniles, none of them were aware when the Widower descended from the ceiling on a length of webbing until the thrown weapon of Ren, caused the Widower to release a hiss of pain as the green bladed pistol ricocheted back towards Ren's hands. Aiming his twin automatic pistols at the arachnid Grimm, Ren unloaded two clips' worth of rounds into the Widower's upper body, peppering it until Ren managed to jump over Jaune's still trapped body before kicking him upward with his feet towards Weiss, who summoned a large hand made of ice that closed over Jaune's form in order to protect him from the Widower, who was being kept busy by Ren, Pyrrha, Blake, and Ruby.

But when several of Juveniles began attacking the untrained Bella and the exhausted Professor Goodwitch, both Ruby and Blake raced off to protect the two as Ruby, using her semblance rocketed off towards the two, turning herself into a cyclone of rose petals as she sliced the Juveniles with her scythe. And Blake, using some dust and her semblance created several explosive doubles of herself that the Juveniles mistakenly attacked out of instinct, causing a chain reaction as each double of Blake exploded, killing the Juveniles and protecting Professor Goodwitch and Bella, who cowered behind the form of the combative professor.

When several of the Juveniles managed to squeeze their way into the encompassing ice that protected Jaune's form, Wiess used her glyphs once more, draining her of energy but managing to shift the ice just enough to shoot Jaune's form out of the ice and towards the literal flaming hothead blonde, Yang Xiao Long.

After successfully catching the bundle of webbing that wrapped around Jaune's body Yang empowered her lower body with her Aura before slightly crouching and leaping into the air, keeping a tight hold on Jaune's webbing as she used her other hand to fire off a barrage of explosive concussive blasts at the swarm of Juveniles. Landing on a small outcropping that kept them safely out of the reach of the Juveniles, at least for the moment, Yang quickly turned to look at her friend. A feeling a sadness nearly overwhelmed her until the sudden appearance of a Juvenile shocked her out of it and earned a blast to the face as a reward.

A part of her wanted to lament to the captured ball of webbing about how she and the others had never meant to hurt Jaune but even she knew that a proper apology would have to wait till the battle was at an end. So for now, she would remain posted on the edge of the outcropping, firing a volley of concussive blasts from her golden gauntlets, and protect her friend, or at least she'd secretly hoped they'd still remain friends.

When the sudden appearance of the Widower shocked Yang, her instincts flew into high gear, sending her rocketing into the Widower before performing an uppercut to it's jawline. A blast shot out of the gauntlet's barrel, exploding in the Grimm's face and sending both Yang and Jaune toppling over the edge. Luckily, both Blake and Ruby had shown up to save the two from their fall while the Widower escaped into a hole lining the cave's walls.

Seizing the opportunity, the group decided to regroup and discuss their plan while they had the chance. After rolling Jaune's ball of webbing towards the group and once again checking for any lingering Juveniles, the group was finally satisfied that the Grimm had made it's temporary escape. The group then sat in a small circle within the large expansion, always checking their surroundings for any surprise attacks.

When the sound of a sigh echoed through the cave, the group all turned their heads over Professor Goodwitch, who seemed to be getting a small bit of her strength back after barely managing to pull off the maneuver that had save the group from a sudden free fall, courtesy of Bella. Speaking of which, the aforementioned girl was currently cuddling up on the side of the still trapped Jaune, who still being under the Widower's paralyzing venom was unable to push the intruding stalker away from him. But even if Jaune couldn't showcase his discomfort, Pyrrha most certainly would. As evident by the firm frown on her face as she watched her cuddle up to her crush.

"What do we do now, Professor Goodwitch?" asked Ruby, her usual joyful expression replaced by genuine worry for their combative professor.

"For now, we gather our strengths, Ms. Rose." said Professor Goodwitch, just barely managing to prop herself up thanks to a nearby wall as she turned to face her students. Seeing, Jaune's un-moving face, the professor sighed in partial relief that her student had not yet been killed but was still deeply worried as the venom was slow acting but still very much dangerous the young man's physical body. "Seeing as Mr. Arc's body is still under the effects of the Widower's venom, we will need to make our escape out of the Widower's lair and seek aid back at Beacon Academy." said Professor Goodwitch, walking as best as she could over to Jaune before kneeling down to eye level. "But first, we will to find an exit to this cave system, no doubt the Widower is using this time to lick it's wounds before it makes a comeback and considering the sheer size of this cave system, it's also possible that it expands the entirety of the Emerald Forest itself, maybe more. If we cannot find our way out before our bullhead needs to refuel..." said Professor Goodwitch, not bothering to finish her sentence as everyone could immediately figure out the answer for themselves.

If they couldn't find their way out of this underground maze of tunnels then their search and rescue would turn into a search and retrieval.


	7. The Witch Of Beacon

**Greetings everyone!**

 **Welcome to the 7th chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **And sweet mother mercy has this story blown up! I mean seriously, I can't stop being amazed at the number of people reading this right now. Thank you all so very much for doing so and leaving your feedback. It always puts a smile on my face and brightens my day.**

 **Next Scheduled Release Date:**

 **August 12th: "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend - Ch. 08"**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Seven

Aimless in a maze of earthly tunnels. Adrift in a sea of overwhelming shadows. Astray in an underground world of nightmares. Wayward beneath the sea of the emerald trees and the plains of the azure sky. In other words the small group, consisting of eight students, one civilian, and one professor, were hopelessly lost within the confines of the Widower's domain. But still they powered through their exhaustion, placing one foot in front of the other, as they marched with fleeting hope towards their salvation.

In the front of the pack of adolescent teenagers was the calm and collected combative professor, Glynda Goodwitch, her right palm wrapped firmly around the handle of her weaponized riding crop. Following closely behind her was the fiery-tempered buxom blonde, Yang Xiao Long, carting the paralyzed limp form of the tall, blonde, and scraggly knight, Jaune Arc. Behind them was the small but adorable red-hooded reaper, Ruby Rose, and her cold-shouldered, snow-haired partner, Weiss Schnee. Behind them was the secretive, feline ninja-enthusiast, Blake Belladonna, and the famous, cereal mascot, Pyrrha Nikos. And lastly, behind the ground was the hyperactive hammer-wielder, Nora Valkyrie, and her calm and easy-going partner, Lie Ren, both guarding the borderline psychopathic stalker, Bella Bleu.

They had decided that this formation was for the best as it kept the crazed romantic away from the paralyzed form of Jaune, who had opted to remain silent through the duration of their aimless wandering. That's not to say the group hadn't at least attempted to start a conversation with their paralyzed friend but it had started to become painfully obvious that Jaune had no desire to engage in friendly conversation at this point in time. Though it wasn't hard to understand as to why given the sheer amount of trauma the young lad had faced throughout his stay at Beacon Academy.

And so, he remained silent, stilling his tongue as it proceeded to wet the inner confines of his mouth while his limp form, still filled with the Widower's deadly paralyzing venom, was being carted over the shoulder of Team RWBY's dynamite brawler.

"So, um, Jaune?" Ruby spoke, drawing Jaune's attention to the little red-hooded reaper that walked behind his carrier. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked, her silver eyes sparkling with innocence while Jaune used what little motor skills he possessed to stare at her with a deadpanned stare.

"Define "okay"." he said, causing Ruby to scratch the back of her head nervously as she tried to think of an answer before just deciding to remain silent as Jaune lowered his head and allowed the wall of silence to fall between them.

The two of them had repeated this same back-and-forth with varying degree as their group continued to wander aimlessly through the tunnels. And while the ever-calm and collected Professor Goodwitch led the group of students through the darkness of the tunnels, each of the children was fighting an inner turmoil within themselves as each of them had been trying desperately to find an opportunity to apologize to the young Arc, who laid limp over Yang's right shoulder. But they knew that should they even attempt to say a word to Jaune, their friend would just silence their voices with that same stare of his. Never in a million years had they thought the kind and charitable Jaune Arc would terrify them into submission with just a single stare.

Perhaps it was due to living with seven sisters that he somehow perfected the dreaded "stare" that so many parents and oldest siblings have managed to produce. Either way, their apologies would fall upon deaf ears even if they were to voice them as Jaune's repeated stares and overall silence was a dead give away that he held no interest towards their words. But still, they realized that their attempts to make him happy were just excuses for their actions which resulted in Jaune's current predicament.

So for now, they would still their tongues and keep their words within themselves as they wander through the dark tunnels as the soft glow of Professor Goodwitch's scroll lit the way through the darkness.

After several minutes of wandering aimlessly through the maze of tunnels, the group decided it was best to stop and regain their bearings before continuing to move forward. Laying Jaune's limp form against the tunnel's wall, Yang stepped off to the side when Professor Goodwitch marched forward, settling into a one-knee crouch before placing her cool palm onto his hot forehead. Her eyes widening in alarm at the heated temperature the boy was expelling before she pulled her palm away.

"Mr. Arc...Jaune." she said, using his first name as her usual stern tone shifted into a motherly one, making Jaune's eyes slightly widen at the sound of it. "How are you feeling?" she asked, using her motherly tone and leaving Jaune without a way to answer her, being so caught off guard by her shift in tone. "Jaune, please answer." she said once more, watching as Jaune ponder for a moment before looking into her green eyes.

"I feel...Hot, I guess? I'm not sure how to describe it." he replied as Professor Goodwitch took this into consideration, walking off to the side in silence and leaving the children to stay together with Jaune once again remaining silent and the others being unsure of what to say.

The group remained in silence as they waited for Professor Goodwitch to return. Heck, not even Bella was willing to risk herself to Jaune's intimidating "stare" even if she was his ex-girlfriend/stalker. Finally, the combat professor made her way back towards the group, where they all turned their heads in her general direction, their eyes filled with a sense of worry and hope as Professor Goodwitch stood there before them. After taking a deep breath from her lungs and regaining her composure, Professor Goodwitch faced her students, their eyes filled with a mixture of hope and worry for their situation and friend.

"Mr. Arc, as you may already be aware of, has been injected with the Widower's paralyzing venom. And as it's name suggests, the toxins within Mr. Arc's blood stream are what are preventing him access to his motor functions...Unfortunately, that is not the worst of it...As it is a venomous toxin, it means that if we are unable to find our way out of this forsaken maze...Mr. Arc..." But for reasons beyond her comprehension, Professor Goodwitch found that she just couldn't bare to say those next fateful words. Perhaps it was due to her respect for the young boy? And as far fetched as that was, she couldn't deny that it had a foundation to be built upon. From the moment she met the young Arc she felt that he was unprepared for the trials and tribulations that came with being a Huntsman. And for the first month or so, she found herself counting down the days till he inevitably left the academy, whether it be out of fear or outside forces was irrelevant.

But then, she noticed a change in his demeanor. It was subtle at first, barely even noticeable but if one were to focus just enough they could see that Jaune had changed himself for the better. His grades were slowly rising to a manageable level and his combative prowess was finally becoming coherent with a style and knowledge rather than brute strength. And for a while she didn't want to believe it herself. She had always prided herself on her ability to read someone down to the last detail but after witnessing the slow rise of progress from Jaune, she began to second guess herself until eventually he'd won his first match with Cardin Winchester and she stood there as his friends cheered for him and he and Cardin shaking hands not as enemies but as rivals. It was that day that Professor Goodwitch realized that she'd judged Jaune too harshly and found herself desiring to see him become the Huntsman he was destined to become.

Maybe that was why she found it so difficult to say those last words. She had come to deeply respect Jaune throughout his stay at Beacon. Not for his combative skills nor his facade of bravado but his courage and determination in the face of adversity. And now, here she stood unable to tell them that should Jaune be unable to obtain and antidote for the venomous poison then the odds were that Beacon Academy would lose one of it's brightest pupils. It was sad to say but it was painfully obvious to the group what Professor Goodwitch's next words would've been as they cast their eyes downward, unwilling to face that harsh reality that was in front of them. But it was someone's next words that shocked them each to their very cores.

"Man, I'm hungry." said Jaune, his cerulean eyes dancing across the bodies of his friends as they all stared open-mouthed at his paralyzed form. "Any of you guys happen to bring some food by any chance?" he asked when, without warning, a red-faced, teary-eyed Pyrrha marched over to him and struck her open palm across his left cheek. The resulting red handprint on his left cheek visible for all to see though with the paralyzing venom within his blood stream, the pain of the slap was little more than a minuscule sting. And all the while Pyrrha stood above, a tight frown on her face as tears streamed down her red cheeks, her fists clenched at her sides before drawing near him, clenching his jacket's collar as she forcibly yanked his limp body closer to her personal space.

"How can you be so nonchalant about this!?" she shouted, the sheer volume of her piercing shriek causing everyone to wince at it. "Don't you understand that you could die if we can't find a way out!?" But still Jaune abstained from speaking, granting Pyrrha even more time to belittle her leader and crush as her grip tightened on his jacket collar. "Has it ever crossed your mind how we would feel if you died!?" Finally having enough of her partner's silence towards them, the cereal mascot shouted in fury as she dropped him to the ground before kneeling and pounding the ground, creating a crack from the force. "SAY SOMETHING!"

"So far I've been badgered by my so-called friends to answer questions about an ex-girlfriend, who I wanted nothing to do with. Then I'm hunted down repeatedly through the week like a rabid animal. THEN I find out that not only did my ex-girlfriend show up out of nowhere but it was my FRIENDS who personally invited her here in the first place! And then, to make matters worse, I get abducted by an ancient Grimm hellbent on making me into a permanent snack and injected with a venom that not only prevents me from moving but is slowly killing me while my friends are forced to watch!" shouted Jaune, releasing several amount of bottled-up anger in one go. "So, tell me, Pyrrha, just what in the hell do you think I should do!? Cause the way I see it I'm as good as dead at this point!" After several moments of silence, a sigh broke through like a battering ram as Jaune looked away from the shocked faces of his friends, mentor, and ex-girlfriend. "Look...It's obvious that I'm just slowing you all down...So just leave me here...I'm the one the Widower is after...Not you." he said, refusing to meet their eyes and when they opened their mouths to voice their harsh opinions, Jaune refused to grant them such liberties as he voiced his own. "If I stay here then there's still a chance for you all to escape from here...You know it's better this way."

"HOW IS LEAVING OUR FRIEND HERE TO DIE BETTER!?" shouted Ruby, tears clouding her vision as she shouted at her first friend.

"Sometimes you need to sacrifice the few in order to save the many...Isn't that right, Professor Goodwitch?" he asked, his words targeted directly at the combat professor who remained silent at his words. "I don't expect you guys to like it. Hell, you can hate me and curse my name till the end of time but the fact of the matter is...I'm not worth saving. Not if it means losing all of you." he finished, looking up at his friends with a sad smile. "So, please...Just leave me here." he finished, looking downward.

Silence drifted between them as Jaune relinquished himself to the onslaught of insults and curses he was sure was imminent. But then, Jaune felt himself being lifted from the ground, his eyes bursting open as she found himself floating in midair with a purple haze of Aura surrounding his body, courtesy of Professor Goodwitch, who stood with her back turned to the group.

"I have been a teacher for years, Mr. Arc. And I have been a Huntress for even longer. And never in all my life have I ever regretted that decision. Not even when I was forced to bare witness as the love I held in my heart was ripped to shreds before my very eyes. All in an effort to protect me when I was too weak to protect myself." said Professor Goodwitch, her heart clenching in her chest as she struggle to hold Jaune afloat with her Semblance. "You have continued to surprise me, Mr. Arc. Not with you skills in combat nor your knowledge of even the most basic of information. No, what has continued to surprise me is your willingness to become a martyr for those you cherish." she continued to speak, turning to face her students with a stern expression. "You are dimwitted, unsophisticated, tactless, and downright childish. But you are also brave, charitable, selfless, and a person with the shinning features of what it means to be a leader." she said, smiling at his dumbfounded expression. "You were born to become a hero, Mr. Arc. And I intend to witness that day." she finished before turning her attention onto her students. "Now, we are up against an enemy that is beyond our level of experience and we are without assistance from the outside world. I believe the best word to describe our current situation would be "fucked"." she said, taking slight joy at the sound of gasps originating from her students. "But we are not without hope..For we have what the Widower is severely lacking. Can anyone tell me what that is?" she asked, suddenly turning their hopeless situation into a learning experience when a single hand rose to the air belonging to Weiss. "Yes, Ms. Schnee?" she asked, gesturing to Weiss to reply.

"Dust. Grimm are unable to utilize the destructive power held within them and as such we have the superior advantage." answered Weiss, causing Professor Goodwitch to smile at her well-thought answer.

"Correct, Ms. Schnee." she said, adding more fuel to Weiss's inflated ego. "We can't go from the sides and going below will just lead us to nowhere." she said, turning with an expression she hadn't worn in years since her early days as a Huntress-In-Training. "So our only option is hit that son of a bitch from above." said Professor Goodwitch when the small hand of Ruby Rose rose into the air, catching her attention. "Yes, Ms. Rose?" she asked, using the same gesture towards the little reaper.

"So, what does that mean, Professor Goodwitch?" she asked, feeling slightly nervous with her usually stern professor's excited expression.

"To quote a drunken old crow, Ms. Rose, we're going to fuck up some shit." said Professor Goodwitch, smiling as Yang's hair began to spark up, pumping her fists in excitement.

"Hell yeah! We're gonna show that A-hole who's the boss!" shouted Yang, when Professor Goodwitch swatted her hand with her riding crop, causing her to wince and tremble in fear beneath their professor's harsh glare.

"Language, Ms. Xiao Long." she said, sternly as Yang nodded in rapid succession with a crooked smile as she slowly backed away. Seeing this, Professor Goodwitch turned to face Jaune once more, who remained silent throughout the whole ordeal. "Do you have anything to add, Mr. Arc?" she asked, smiling as Jaune looked around to watch each of his friends smiling without a care, fully prepared to walk into hell and back just to save him.

A chuckle escaped his mouth before he could stop it but found that he didn't care as he smirked at them.

"You're all gonna owe me big time if we make it out of here." he said, smiling as his friends began to laugh aloud before realizing just how serious he was.

"Heh...Uh, Jaune? You're just kidding, right? Right?" asked Ruby, holding her hand out to Jaune as her silver eyes widened when Jaune returned his focus onto Professor Goodwitch.

"Well, Professor Goodwitch, what did you have in mind?" he asked as his calm and collected professor untied her hair, allowing it to fall down her shoulders before removing her glasses and replacing them with contacts as a prideful smirk graced her lips.

"It's about time I showed my students just how I became the Vice-Headmistress of Beacon Academy. The Witch of Beacon is about to make her second debut." she said, leading her students back to the Widower's nest, their finally battle was about to begin and just as she had said once before; they were going to fuck up some shit.

Goodwitch style!


	8. The Witch's Spire

**Greetings everyone,**

 **Welcome to the eighth chapter of the rising star of August, "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **Now, I know I said that during the month of August that I'd be working on "The Master Huntsman" & "Operation: Jaune's Ex Girlfriend" but if you've read this on July 29th, the day I decided to upload this chapter, well it's very simple to explain. While July 29th is not the start of August, it is the Sunday that connects to the first week of August, which is why it's been uploaded on July 29th. **

**Don't forget to check out my other story, "The Master Huntsman" for it's 20th chapter, coming out next Sunday!**

 **And another thing, another one of my favorite writers, "blaiseingfire" is reading this story too! I'm so freakin' psyched you're enjoying this story and I hope you continue to follow our wacky misadventures! And everyone else, make sure you check out their stories as well. Trust me, their stories are some of my favorites.**

 **Next Scheduled Release Date:**

 **August 12th: "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend - Ch. 09"**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Chapter Eight

Two hours. Two hours was all they had left to escape the confines of the Widower's maze of endless darkness and deliver Jaune to the hospital in order to purge him of the Widower's toxic paralyzing venom. Their Auras were at full capacity, their weapons at the ready, and their quarry lied just beyond their current position. The Widower had them outmatched, that much was clear, but unlike the Widower, who had been regressing back to relying on it's survival instincts, they had a plan. A plan that would not only successfully kill the monstrous spider-like Grimm but grant them access to the world above.

And that plan was currently in motion...Literally, as Jaune was being charted away by Yang, who blasted every juvenile Widower she saw. The high pitched whine followed by the concussive force of fiery explosions notifying the Widower of their current location. Running alongside Yang was Team JNPR's own power brawler, Nora, who blasted off grenade after grenade down the tunnel, exploding into a pink smoke as several Juveniles died before they could they reach the group.

The tunnel they ran down filled with dust and dirt when suddenly they leaped through the cloud of pink and black, falling down to the cave floor below and landing back in the area where they had first found Jaune. The three of them stood before the massive connecting spire of the cave as silence settle before them, sweat pouring out of their glands and down their grimy faces as they watched their surroundings with a careful eye.

"You think everyone is doing alright?" asked Nora, hefting her might hammer in her hands while Yang checked her ammunition and Jaune remained limp over her shoulder.

Immediately before Yang could reply several consecutive explosions rocked the cave system, causing several stalactites to fall to the ground, shattering upon impact. As several tunnels openings exploded into various colors of clouded smoke and dust, a shower of dying Juveniles rained down to the cave floor as the rest of the group jumped down to the floor below, save for Bella, who was being carried by Ren. And all the while Jaune used what little motor skills he had left to lift his head to meet his teammate's eyes with a sardonic smirk.

"I'm gonna go with yes." said Jaune, his sarcastic tone of voice causing Nora to roll her eyes despite her smile and Yang to snicker and pat his behind, not that he could feel it happen though.

"I have got to take you one of these days, Vomit Boy. Hit up a club, shoot up the town, and set the roofs on fire." said Yang, smiling as the others raced to join alongside them.

"With you, Yang, I can only hope you don't mean that literally." said Jaune, once again causing Yang to laugh aloud just as the others joined them.

Instantly, Bella rushed to cup Jaune's cheeks in her smooth but dirty palms as her orange eyes shined with worry for her ex-boyfriend. But before she say another word or Jaune could impolitely tell her to keep her perverted hands away from his face, the high pitched screech of the Widower caught their attention. Looking upward, the group watched as the Widower leered down at them before jumping onto a nearby stalactite and shooting down acidic webbing down upon them.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted at her partner as Weiss immediately created a floating of Ice above them, catching the acidic webbing and granting them cover from the Widower's attacks as it leaped from stalactite to stalactite, raining more acidic webbing down upon them.

"Got it!" Weiss replied when a purple haze enveloped the icy dome before breaking apart into several floating shards of ice.

With a raise of her riding crop, Professor Goodwitch launched the shards of ice at the Widower with accelerated fire rate. The Widower leaped onto another stalactite only for more shards to pepper it's grotesque body. It's screeches echoed throughout the cave system as Professor Goodwitch wrapped her semblance around the stalactite the Widower was clinging to and with a might force broke the massive rock, keeping it afloat thanks to her semblance.

The Widower attempted to leap away but due to the marksman eye of Ruby, the monster was shot down before it make it's escape. As it plummeted to the floor, it's body began to twist in an unnatural way, shooting non-acidic webbing from it's pouch and flinging itself towards a nearby wall, turning it's head back to screech violently at them as it raced it's way towards on of the tunnels.

"It's going for the tunnel!" shouted Bella, pointing at it when Nora appeared beside her with her grenade launcher in tow.

Pulling the trigger's mechanism, a canister launched from the weapon's barrel, soaring through the air and towards it's intended target. Just as the Widower's claws grazed the tunnel's walls, the canister flew over it's head, landing a few inches away from it before exploding into a cloud of dust and pink. The resulting explosion knocking the Widower towards the ground where Ren and Blake sat in wait. Instantly the two of them circled the Widower, narrowly avoiding it's attacks as they tied it's body with Blake's ribbon, entrapping it's arms to it's bodies.

It's screeches were cut short as Yang bounded towards it, sucker punching the Widower's jaw with her fist and firing a concussive blast from her gauntlet's barrel. the force of Yang's punch sent it staggering backwards just as Pyrrha appeared behind it with a bash of her shield and a recoil-empowered javelin thrust to it's back. It's screeches echoed out as Pyrrha's semblance pulled the spear from it's back, allowing wisps of black smoke to rise to the cave's ceiling. Before the Widower had a chance to retaliate, the two girls attacked once again. Yang, using Pyrrha's shield as a support, leaped towards the Widower, blasting it's face with another concussive blast from her gauntlets. While Pyrrha went low, sliding between the Widower's legs and using her xiphos to slice at it's connecting joints.

The Widower screeched once again, attempting to grab at them when Weiss appeared, using her glyphs to enhance her speed and launching herself at the Widower's body. Her sharpened rapier punctured directly between it's grotesque chest, causing the Widower to screech in pain and attempt to grab at Weiss only for Weiss to activate her weapon's dust and blast the Grimm with a torrent of fire from her rapier.

Pushing herself off of the Widower, Weiss quickly summoned another glyph directly below the Widower. And thanks to the actions of Pyrrha, slicing at it's joints, the Widower found itself unable to move a muscle as the glyph glowed brightly and Weiss impaled her rapier into the ground, creating a massive ice spire that jettisoned towards the top of the cave, slamming the Widower into the ceiling before plummeting back towards the ground.

But it's torment was not ended there as Nora swung her hammer at it's abdomen, pulling her trigger that then launched and exploded against the Widower's body, cracking it's harden exoskeleton and launching back towards the center of the cave. But the Widower was not one to be trifled with as it's muscles tensed, veins of black bulging from it's thick but leathery skin. Geysers of black wisps expelled from it's body as it snapped it's bindings in half, grabbing hold of the ribbon's two ends before twisting it's unnatural body, tugging the both Ren and Blake towards the Grimm. And they would've been in it's clutches if not for the intervention of Ruby, who sliced the ribbon with her scythe.

Turning to face the Widower, Ruby shifted her weapon's position until it's head was met with the ground and with a squeeze of her trigger, Ruby was launched at accelerated speeds thanks to both her weapon's impressive recoil and her speedy semblance. The red hooded Grimm reaper rocketed towards the Widower at high velocity, twisting at the last moment to dodge it's acidic webbing. Pulling her trigger once again, Ruby used the recoil to her advantage as she weaved through the acidic webbing and appeared behind the Widower. And with a mighty swing, Ruby's scythe punctured the Grimm's behind, causing geysers of black wisps to expel from it's body.

But still, the Widower held strong as it screeched in pain, reaching with it's claws to grabs onto Ruby's cloak before chucking her back towards the group with a crash. Her lithe body skidding across the cave floor. The Widower charged forward at them, completely regressed to it's pure survival instincts as it's many limbs met with the cave's flooring.

Further and further the Grimm got as it charged the group with it's arms outstretched and it's gaping maw open, inviting anyone to face it in combat for the second they stepped with it's territory, that was to be the end. It no longer desired food to last it for years. Instead, thanks to the actions of it's enemies, it's Juveniles were dead and gone and it's body was ready for death. It had no desire to devour their flesh. It only wished to kill. To see their blood coat the ground. Their mangled bodies filled with broken and shattered bones. The light gone from their eyes.

Their ammunition was running low. Their bodies exhausted from the extended battle. And their Aura was dwindling by the second. All in an effort to lay down the trap they planned overhead. Just above and out of sight of the monstrous Widower was a massive collection of rocks, all of which contained traces of untouched highly volatile Dust in it's natural form, all merged and shaped together to form a gigantic cone. The massive rock had a small but still noticeable purple haze that surrounded the rock's outer surface. This was what they'd been waiting for. Their plan was to weaken the Widower's tough exterior and with the use of the massive cone and huge assortment of untouched volatile Dust, blow not only the Widower but the cave's top as well and grant them an exit out of this hell.

But their plan was not meant to be as the Widower stopped mid-charge. It's arms caved in until they were close enough to it's body to off no threat. And then it began to make several hissing and clicking sounds, almost as if it was laughing at them before it raised it's head to look up at the shaking stalactites. The group turned to look at one another before the cave began to shake with a tremendous force. Many stalactites shook from their positions above, plummeting towards the group and very nearly killing them if not for the intervention of Weiss, who summoned a dome of ice to protect them.

It was in that moment that they'd realized their mistake.

They had assumed the Widower they were facing was nothing but a mindless monster, working solely on it's basic survival instincts. However, as the cave shook with more pressure, they soon realized their foolish mistake. The Widower wasn't fighting them to kill them nor was it fighting them to survive. It had somehow made the conscientious decision to bury them alive by coating the various rock columns that were the sole reason the expansive cave was able to remain secure and not cave-in on itself.

But now, the Widower cared little for whether it lived or died...So long as they died along with it.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" shouted Bella, grabbing Jaune and pulling him onto her back as she attempted to run from the plummeting rocks and boulders.

Professor Goodwitch turned to view her students, her body glowing with a purple haze as she gripped the falling rocks with her telekinetic semblance, granting her students a chance to escape. But as she did so, she noticed that the Widower was chasing after her students in an attempt to either escape or finish it's desire to kill them. Professor Goodwitch's face contorted as she willed some of the rocks to form into spears, aiming them at the Widower while keeping the other rocks from continuing their fall. The group raced as fast as they could towards their last hope, a nearby tunnel that they had left unblocked just in case their plan had failed. Bella rushed as fast as she could with Jaune in tow towards the tunnel.

And as Professor Goodwitch lost sight of her students as they made their escape into the tunnel, she couldn't help but smile. They'd been so brave and even then she was hard on them and at times her words could be considered harsh, she couldn't help but smile. She was proud of her students and now it was time she proved just why she was the most feared huntress across Vale.

Her riding crop jutted forward, launching several more rock missiles at the Widower as she jumped onto several of the plummeting rocks., chasing after the Widower, who leaped from falling rock to falling rock, shooting it's acidic webbing at her. Professor Goodwitch flew towards the Widower, swinging her riding crop as she will more rock missiles out of existence and launching them towards the Widower's face, several of the rocks puncturing it's weakened body and causing it severe pain.

Unfortunately, Professor Goodwitch soon found herself captured by the Widower, as it wrapped it's sticky webbing around her body and flinging her towards the cave floor and causing the nearly exhausted professor to scream in pain. But once again, she willed her semblance to respond once more as she broke through her bindings and empowered her semblance. Pain coursed through her body but still she powered through. She knew exactly what her odds were and she knew exactly the consequence she'd receive if she miscalculated even one thing as she willed her semblance once again.

To those that didn't realize it, a semblance was like the muscle in a person's body. Strong and resilient but also weak and frail. And if stretched too much and put under too much pressure, then there were chances you could damage it to the point of no longer being able to use it ever again.

But for a woman such as Glynda Goodwitch, it mattered not how much pain she was in or how much damage she would do to herself. All that mattered was the lives of others. Her students needed her or else they'd be trapped in this underground hell for the rest of their lives. She was going to do whatever it took to save their lives even if it costed her own.

With one final push, Professor Goodwitch's body was enveloped in a flare of purple, her eyes wide and her arms stretched out. Her hair had become undone and now floated as if in zero gravity as every plummeting rock was frozen in place, floating with a halo of purple Aura surrounding their bodies.

"This is for kidnapping my student!" she screamed pointing her riding crop directly at the Widower as several gigantic rock missiles launched themselves at the Grimm, impaling themselves in it's body, causing it to screech in pain. "This is dragging my students into a living hell!" she screamed once more, throwing several floating rocks at the Widower, crushing it's legs while still enabling it to live. "This is for hurting my students!" she shouted, enveloping the Widower in a purple haze before throwing it into a nearby floating boulder.

Pulling it back, Professor Goodwitch willed herself up to meet the ungodly grotesque monster that had harmed her precious students. Glaring at it's empty red eyes with a righteous green fury as her floating body was surrounded with a bright purple haze.

"And THIS is for pissing me off!" she shouted, thrusting her right fist upward, when from out of nowhere, a massive spire of rock formed together, launching itself into the Widower's stomach, impaling it and creating a gigantic geyser of black wisps to expel from the gaping hole in it's stomach. And with a final turn of her wrist, the spire was launched upwards, through the earth and out above the emerald treetops with a massive explosion, carrying the dying form of the Widower with it.

Professor Goodwitch floated downward with grace, her body still enveloped in a purple haze as she cleared the rubble the kept her students trapped in the tunnel and her students turned to see her in all her glory. Her form showered upon by the soft glow of Remnant's broken moon and massive spire as she equipped her round spectacles and faced her students with a smile despite the rigorous hell she had just undergone.

"And that, students, is why you don't fuck with a Goodwitch." said Professor Goodwitch before passing out, landing in the caring arms of her students as several bullheads' spotlights surrounded them from the hole above as the Widower faded away into nothingness and the massive spire of rock stood proud among the velvety night sky. It was on that night that the sea of emerald trees gained a new monument that would last for eons to come. One that instilled fear into the empty souls of Grimm and courage in the hearts of children.

That was day the Witch's Spire was created, a symbol of hope, overcoming the odds, and the end of a hellish nightmare.


	9. Bite The Bullet

**Greetings everyone,**

 **Welcome to the ninth chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **So, recently I've come down with a seasonal flu that has me lying in bed for most of the time and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. So, as such this chapter is significantly shorter than the others just because I haven't been up to par for it. Hopefully this flu is purged from my body and I can get back into the swing of things.**

 **Now, where we last left our heroes, they had just defeated the dreaded Widower and we all got to see the utter badassery that was Glynda, Mother Freaking, Goodwitch. And props to those of you that caught on to the Bayonetta quote too. I love the games and I thought what better line to use that from my favorite game on my favorite female character.**

 **Next Scheduled Release Date:**

 **August 26th: "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend - Ch. 10"**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review.**

 **Till next time!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Chapter Nine

When Jaune was but a little boy among a litter of seven, that's right, seven older sisters, it was difficult to be the center of attention for very long. So, imagine the young lad's surprise when he had his family's undivided attention, albeit through the screen of a scroll held within his hands. "Oh, my poor, poor baby boy!" his mother, Iris, wailed, shoving his older sisters out of frame as they all attempted to get some screen time with their only brother while his father, Orville, remained silent in the background with naught but a smile of relief upon his chiseled jaw.

Jaune couldn't help but smile at his dysfunctional family as they all shoved at each other, trying to squeeze back into frame. His mind went wild with the memories of his time spent in that hellish nightmare with the Widower and his friends. Once again, he had been made into the damsel-in-distress, the boy-stuck-in-the-tree, and the borderline comic relief. And while he was grateful that his professor had risked her life to save him and his friends, he couldn't help but criticize himself due to the fact that if he hadn't recklessly jumped into a tremendous forest filled with man-devouring beasts of darkness and evil, then none of this would've happened. But, another part of himself also knew that if it wasn't for the actions of his friends, then he wouldn't have done what he did. It mattered not the reason nor the feelings behind their decision. He'd make sure his friends knew exactly how he felt about the way he'd been treat, that was certain, and then he'd forgive them for saving his life due to his own reckless abandon.

But first, he needed to deal with a certain blue-haired stalker ex.

After saying his final goodbyes to his rambunctious family, Jaune's eyesight was then greeted by the swinging of his room's door as a man, with balding white hair and round spectacles over his baby blue eyes, dressed in a doctor's uniform and carrying a clipboard with several sheets of paper, stepped through the open frame and into his hospital room. The smile on the elderly doctor's face was enough to make Jaune return the gesture with his own, Arc Charm and all.

"Heh, welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Arc." said the doctor, Jaune's eyes landing on the nametag on his left breast pocket which read out his name, Dr. Albus Alabaster, as the doctor placed his clipboard on the counter across from Jaune's hospital bed before turning to face him with an old man's comedic smile. "So, how are you feeling today, Mr. Arc? You really put us through quite a scare, you know?" said Dr. Alabaster, taking his seat upon a rolling stool beside his bed.

"I'm doing alright, I guess." Jaune replied as his makeshift smile turned into a frown and his eyes drifted down towards his knuckles that gripped his pristine white blanket, an action that Dr. Alabaster no doubt took notice of. "How are the others? Is Professor Goodwitch OK?" he asked, the newly created Witch's Spire prominent outside his hospital window deep within the sea of emerald trees. A testament to the all mighty power that Beacon's Wicked Witch held within her and a monument to the power that all of Beacon's students may one day achieve with hard work and a fiery passion.

In response to Jaune's overwhelming care towards his friends and teacher, the elderly doctor couldn't help but belch out in laughter over it. Tears of joy streaming down his face which he flicked away with his hands. His baby blue eyes widened as Jaune glared at him through his cerulean blue eyes, causing the balding Dr. Alabaster to scratch the back of his wrinkly neck in embarrassment.

"There's nothing to worry about, son." Dr. Alabaster replied, his words having a calming effect on Jaune's psyche as shown by his whitening knuckles regaining their coloration as they released his blanket from their stone grip. "Team RWBY and the remained of Team JNPR walked out with little more than a few scratches and a couple of brusing. Professor Goodwitch on the other hand will be out of commission for a time to recover from Aura Overload." explained Dr. Alabaster, taking notice of Jaune's confusion towards his choice of words.

"What's Aura Overload?" asked the blonde knight, his expression showcasing his confusion and curiosity towards the newly added information.

"Aura Overload is what happens when a person uses too much of their Semblance when their Aura is no longer able to empower it. Semblances are powered by our Aura and without Aura, our Semblance have no way of being empowered. Though, there are cases where one cane still use their Semblance even when their Aura is depleted though this can have adverse effects on not just the physical body but the mind and soul as well." explained the balding doctor, flipping through his slips of documentation on his clipboard.

"But Professor Goodwitch was able to do, well, that." said Jaune, pointing out his window towards the Witch's Spire that currently had several juvenile Nevermores flying around it's peak that touched the burning tail wisps of the celestial star that hung above the earth. "And Weiss said there was a time she was able to use her Semblance even after her Aura was shattered. So, does that mean that there are times where Aura Overload can be a benefit?" asked Jaune, wondering if perhaps this might be an opportunity for him to discover his own Semblance.

But the elderly balding doctor did not hold the same feelings as young Jaune. "Aura Overload is a very dangerous technique that while it can grant a person a chance to evolve their Semblance into something greater than itself it can still have adverse effects on the person who chooses to undertake such a task. Ms. Schnee and Professor Goodwitch are examples of the benefits it can grant but that does not mean that they walked away without a scar, whether it be physical or psychological is left to be discussed." said Dr. Alabaster, placing his clipboard on the bed and looking directly into Jaune's eyes. "It is the very definition of a double-edged sword, Mr. Arc."

The words slowly sunk into Jaune's mind, much like the ships of old would sink into the seemingly bottomless depths of Remnant's untamed seas of blue. He had nearly allowed his desperation and his hatred of being a person-to-be-saved cause him to reenact a mistake that would only prevent him from achieving his dreams. Dreams that were protected and encouraged by the likes of Professor Goodwitch, who he had once thought had no desires other than to see him fail. But after her words and her actions the previous night, Jaune realized that he now had to achieve his dream and make not just himself or his family proud but his mentor and savior as well.

Seeing that Jaune had taken his words to heart, the elderly doctor once again had his smile return to his face. Picking up his clipboard the doctor read over the information and relayed it back to his patient. Here, Jaune had learned that the only reason he had been able to last as long as he did was due to his immense surplus of Aura and his indomitable willpower in the face of adversity. He also learned that the poison was successfully purged from his bloodstream and given medicine to counter any side effects from the Widower's paralyzing agent.

Afterwords, the doctor said his farewell to the young knight, gathered his things, and left the room, leaving Jaune to contemplate in peaceful silence. "JAUNE-JAUNE'S AWAKE!" shouted the tell-tale voice of Team JNPR's own thundering maverick. For all of about five seconds. She literally broke down his hospital door as she and the others spilled out into the room and onto the floor, all rushing over one another to be beside their recovering friend, none more so than his own partner, Pyrrha Nikos. The red-haired amazon jumped over the pile of friends as she rushed to Jaune's side, her arms instantly wrapping themselves around his head as she pulled him into her chest, holding him as tightly as she could as if he might flying away from her grasp. And all the while his friends stood back, watching with expressions of relief and love at the tender display.

While Jaune was slowly losing his ability to taste the sweet magic that was oxygen as his face slowly turned blue from Pyrrha's vice-like grip and her encompassing...parts. A fact that Yang, who wore her trademark Cheshire grin, pointed out to the Mistral champion, who released her grip from her partner, allowing him to breathe, with a burning feeling in her chest and cheeks. "I'm sorry." Pyrrha apologized as Jaune took in more delectable gulps of air while his friends gathered around his hospital bed.

Silence then came to a crawl as the group found themselves unable or just unwilling to mention the previous night's events. Each of them had reasons for doing what they did but they could not deny the fact that they had made their choices without thinking of the feelings of their friend. He knew that deep down they cared about and just wanted to learn more about him but that didn't stop the anger that burned within himself.

Luckily, the silence was lifted by the voice of Team RWBY's own Ruby Rose, who walked over to Jaune's left-hand side was downcast silver eyes. "Jaune..." she attempted to say before chocking up over her anxiety. "We're sorry!" she shouted as she and the others all bowed their heads towards their friend. "What we did is unforgivable and even more so after what we caused you to go through."

"Rubes is right." said Yang, placing her hand on her little sister's shoulder as she stared into the endless blue eyes of her fellow blonde. "We thought we knew what was best but we didn't know anything."

"We should've stopped our incessant juvenile behavior the moment we saw your apprehension towards even the mentioning of the likes of Ms. Bleu." said Weiss, frowning as a feeling of shame and guilt rained down upon the young heiress like a storm's shower.

"Yeah, that girl was crazy with a capital "K"." said Nora, her words already having an effect on her childhood friend and partner, Lie Ren, who gave himself a face palm, leaving a red hand print on his forehead.

"Jaune, we are sorry and we know that you may hate us for doing what we did...And I don't blame you for doing so...I understand if you don't want to see us for a while." said Pyrrha, frowning as Jaune contemplated their words before releasing a massive sigh.

"I don't hate you guys. If I were anyone else then maybe but I'm me and I can't hate you no matter how angry I might be. And I will forgive you..." said Jaune, watching as his friends' eyes widened with relief before his next words came crashing down upon them like a mountain of bricks. "However, don't think that you'll earn my forgiveness so easily. I may love you all like family but believe me my anger is more than ready to blow it's top and I will be getting back at you."

The group allowed silence to fall over them once more, as if contemplating their friend's promise of just-deserved revenge for putting him through the hell they created. From badgering him about a past he had no desire to recollect to introducing the very variable that had created his distaste for it to introducing a new variable that had very nearly turned him into Grimm food. While a part of them wanted to argue that they had good intentions they also knew that their friendship could never begin again without some well deserved punishment for their actions.

Reluctantly, the snow-haired angel of cold shoulders stepped forward. Her back straightened and her icy-blue eyes locked onto Jaune's cerulean blues and with a final gaze towards her fellow allies, whom all nodded silently, she turned back with a sigh of reluctance. "Jaune, we apologize for our unruly behavior towards you. You did not deserve such from those you had considered to be your friends and we will do everything in our power to prove our remorse towards you. Even if it means punishment of the highest court." said Weiss, shocking Jaune with the use of his name rather than her usual usage of his last name as if to keep it a professional manner.

Jaune smiled at his friends as they circled his hospital bed. "Good. And believe me, I plan to deliver a swift punishment upon you all and then maybe afterwards we can all laugh at this over some pizza and terrible movies. But we need to address the Goliath in the room...We need to get rid of Bella before she tries another one of her "special surprises"." said Jaune, bringing the group's attention to the main cause of concern for their entire day.

"Can't we just call the police or something?" asked Ruby, drawing the group's undivided attention to herself. "I mean, you did say she'd been stalking you and that's definitely a crime, right?" she asked before noticing Jaune shaking his head.

"Won't work." he stated matter of factually. "Bella's dad is something of a celebrity back in Mistral and with her being a famous actress there's no possible way they'll let this get out into the public eye."

"So we're doomed if we do and doomed if we don't, right?" asked Yang, crossing her arms and releasing a huff of annoyance.

"Not necessarily." Weiss spoke up, gaining the group's attention. "Ms. Bleu has been pretty adamant about gaining Jaune back as a potential partner but what if the person she attempting to get back was no longer available?" she asked, as the others' eyes widened in realization. "If Ms. Bleu is inclined to believe that Jaune is no longer available for courtship then this may perhaps end her insufferable presence in his life."

"That sounds like a good idea except for one problem, Ice Queen." interrupted Yang, leaning against the room's eggshell-colored wall as the group turned their heads to look upon her. "There's no way Ms. Crazy is going to believe someone has stolen Vomit Boy's attention, unless someone is willing to bite the bullet?" she asked, turning her head towards the other girls in their group, all remaining silent though for various different reasons.

"Don't everyone jump up at once." said Jaune, giving his best deadpanned look at his fellow friends, causing them to look away in embarrassment. Reaching for his scroll off of the bedside table. After imputing his pass-code and entering a select group of numbers his device's screen bloomed to life and on the other side of the screen was none other than Bella Bleu herself. Her orange eyes widened at the sight of Jaune lying in his hospital bed, her blue hair was disheveled with split ends, evidence of her tossing and turned the previous night.

"Oh! Jaune! I didn't know you were awake. If I did I would've been there faster than you could say supercali-" Bella attempted to say before Jaune held up his hand, silencing her words and granting him her undivided attention as he stared into the screen.

"Bella, we need to talk." he said simply, watching as her eyes widened before nodding in silence. "Can you meet me by the statue at noon?" he asked, watching as she nodded in rapid succession but before she could speak a word the call was ended and Jaune and his friends waited in silence before Ruby pulled in another rolling white board from outside of Jaune's room, gaining the confused attention of everyone in the room.

"Alright! It's time we got started on Operation: Get Rid Of Jaune's Crazy Stalker Ex-Girlfriend By Having Someone Pretend To Be His Current Girlfriend In Hopes That It Causes Her To Leave And Never Return!" shouted the excited little red-hooded, prone to creating explosions via sneezing, weapons-otaku prodigy.

Was their plan foolhardy? Absolutely. Was it insane? Most certainly. Was there a chance it could blow up in their faces? Without a single doubt. But this was their one in a million chance to finally be rid of the entity known as Bella Bleu and there was no way they were going to let some psychotic stalker girl ruin their chance to earn Jaune's forgiveness. There was jut one final question that needed to answered.

Who was going to bite the bullet and become Jaune's "fake" girlfriend?


	10. Operation: Jaune's Dastardly Revenge

**Greetings everyone,**

 **Welcome back to the tenth chapter of "Operation: Jaune's Ex-Girlfriend."**

 **Whoa, was this a freaking doozy of a time to write!** **I mean I was up most of the nights writing this chapter up and I DID NOT expect it would go this long.** **Thank you all so much for following this story and watching it birth into a story that I am so proud to have worked on.**

 **Now onto the main event, put your hands together for...Who is Jaune's fake girlfriend!?**

 **Pyrrha: 3x Votes. I feel your pain fellow Arkos shippers but one day we will have our day!**

 **Ruby: 3x Votes. Well, if Arkos wasn't fated to be that I'm at least glad my favorite weapons otaku got her spot.**

 **Ren: 2x Votes, surprisingly. Guess we've got some Yaoi lovers out there. Not judging. You do you.**

 **Glynda: 2x Votes. Seriously? Would've thought she'd skyrocket to the top of the voting list after that last stunt.  
**

 **Harem: 2x Votes. An interesting concept though I'm not sure how it would've worked out in the end.**

 **Weiss: 1x Vote. I like Weiss, so, sorry to the White Knight shippers.**

 **Nora: 1x Vote. Yeeeah...I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain why this one fell shorter than the others, huh?**

 **Yang and Blake: No Votes. Yeesh. Harsh. Maybe next time girls. Maybe next time.**

 **A** **fter several very stressful evenings, multiple bottles of flavored liquor, and many, many, many, MANY coin flips, I've decided to name Ruby Rose as Jaune's fake girlfriend!** **And now without further a due lets get this operation underway and finally see how our unlikely heroes will rid themselves of Bella's psychotic fury!**

 **Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review!**

 **Till next time!**

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Chapter Ten

This was it.

The moment of truth.

All of their careful planning was about to come to fruition.

Jaune stood just outside the academy's exterior, in front of the massive carved statue of Beacon's courtyard, waiting for the arrival of his former girlfriend, Bella Bleu. Standing beside him, hands clasped together and twiddling her thumbs as she gently kicked dirt with her boots, was his best friend and fellow awkward dork, Ruby Rose, his "current" girlfriend. After many heated debating, the group finally decided that it was best to draw straws and unfortunately, this now put poor little Ruby in Bella's crosshairs. But their plan wasn't to convince Bella of Jaune's new "love" but to stall her until their real plan was ready to spring.

But for now, they had to play the parts of a lovey-dovey couple, or they would if not for the death glares he was receiving from Ruby's older sister, Yang, who was hiding with the others in a bush nearby. Jaune could even swear that Yang was trying to set him on fire with her mind for dragging her innocent little sister into his relationship problems. A fact that Jaune was quick to retaliate by reminding her that it was their fault this was their only option. Course, it did nothing to stop her from glaring a hole into the back of his head. He couldn't rightfully blame her either. He had sisters as well and every time one of them brought home a new date he and his father were all too prepared to grill them for information and thinly veiled threats of what would happen should their precious little girl be harmed in any way.

It was getting close to Bella's arrival time and Ruby's fidgeting was not helping with Jaune's growing anxiety as she demonstrated by fiddling with the corners of he cloak. A sigh barely escaped between his parted lips as he brought a palm to his face, rubbing his eyelids with his index finger and his thumb. An action that Ruby was quick to take notice of. But before she could speak a word the double doors to Beacon Academy swung open and there, standing in a white sundress, her make up done up, and her blue hair stylized, was the Jaune's ex-girlfriend and psycho-stalker, Bella Bleu.

And as the Mistralian actress sashayed down the marbled steps, the wind blowing against her wavy hair and flowing sundress as the soft glows of the sun danced across her skin, Ruby realized a frightening truth. Even if she was a crazy, psychotic, stalker, Bella Bleu was nothing if not beautiful. Heck, she was so close to blushing just from looking at her, it took Jaune pinching her exposed arm skin to snap her out of it.

Finally, she stood before them, staring into Jaune's eyes like a love-sick puppy while Jaune remained stone-faced with his arms crossed over his chest and Ruby stood meekly behind him. The others watched from afar at the silent interaction as both Jaune and Bella seemed to stare into each other's eyes while Ruby stood off to the side glancing at her surroundings in hopes of avoiding meeting Bella's eyes. Though, that would be incredibly difficult to achieve considering she was entierly focused on Jaune's form.

A sigh of annoyance escaped Yang's mouth as she ducked her head back into the bush to rejoin her fellow comrades in secrecy. Weiss was currently writing down notes in her notepad as she received information from Blake and Ren via a wireless earphone and Pyrrha was pouting over not having a chance to be Jaune's "fake" girlfriend. She knew she should've picking the pink straw but no, she just had to pick her favorite color. She was honestly hoping this could be her opportunity to actually confess her feelings to the blonde knight.

"How are we looking Weiss-Cream?" asked Yang, smirking as Weiss glare at her teammate with a burning fury. She always did hate it when Yang used her insufferable nicknames for her. She always hated nicknames, well except when it was her butler Klein.

"I've received word that Ren and Blake are ready for phase two of the operation but I haven't gotten word back from Nora." said Weiss, sighing as she closed her notepad, trapping the pen inside before crawling over to watch her plan come to life through her binoculars. "I can only pray that she wasn't distracted by something idiotic."

"I'm sure Nora won't be so easily-" Pyrrha attempted to say only to see both Weiss's and Yang's deadpanned expressions, causing her to remember that this was her own teammate she was talking about. And as much as she loved her fellow teammate, it was no surprise that the girl had the attention span of a gnat. "Nevermind." she said softly, turning her attention back to her crush's dilemma.

Meanwhile, both Jaune and Bella seemed content with remaining silent as they continued to stare into each other's eyes while Ruby's nervousness only seemed to grow. It grew and grew until it felt like if she didn't do something, anything, then their hardwork would be in vain. So, by some unknowing reason, the weapons-loving nervous wreck, wrapped her arms around Jaune's arm and placed a chaste peck on his exposed cheek, snapping him out of his trance and granting her the ire of Bella Bleu.

But, rather than express her distaste for Ruby's hasty action, Bella was quick to replace her sour expression with her classic actress smile, a technique she had developed in her early days as a growing actress. It was often used to hide her stress as she knew that the moment she caught not acting like the "sweet and innocent angel" many thought her as then her career would be over.

"Hello again, Ruby." Bella said sweetly, with an undertone of barely hidden venom, as Ruby looked away in what could be confused with shyness was in actuality fear. "I'm so glad that you and your friends are alright. It'd be such a shame if you all were injured in some way." she said in that same innocent tone though both Jaune and Ruby could immediately tell that she meant the opposite of what she had said.

"Bella." Jaune interrupted, still remaining stone-faced as Bella quickly turned her attention on Jaune, her eyes practically sparkling with love as she stared into Jaune's cerulean blue eyes. "I invited you out because I wanted to put our past behind us. I need you to understand that I've moved on and I need you to respect that." said Jaune, maintaining his serious expression that very nearly caused Bella's own expression to falter before managing to retain her usual sweet and innocent angel smile in order to mask her growing anger towards the red-hooded huntress.

But with a smile that hid her venomous words at bay, the actress merely smiled at the two before pulling Ruby's hand towards her, bringing her into a hug that, to an outsider, looked like two friends in platonic embrace, when in actuality Ruby's face clearly showcased her fear towards the civilian actress. Ending the sudden embrace, Bella wrapped a single arm around Ruby's waist, making sure to dig her freshly sharpened nails into her side, causing her to grimace while maintaining a fearful smile. "Then this calls for a celebration!" she happily announced, removing her arm from Ruby's waist and pulling out her scroll. "And to make up for my behavior, I'm taking you both to a private screening of...X-Ray & Vav: Dr. Diabolical & The Army of Doom!" she announced outwardly, breaking Jaune's serious expression and Ruby's trepidation as both of them shared a similar look of confusion.

"But that movie isn't out until next summer." said Ruby, pointing out that the trailer for said movie mentioned that it's release was for May of next year. "How can we see it if it's not even out yet?" she asked when Bella turned to flash her a smile and heated glare.

"Oh, Ruby." she said, hiding her disdain for the girl behind a thin veil of joy. "Everyone knows that movies are given a year to go through private screenings in order to gauge audience reactions and make any last minute changes. Besides, it also helps if you're close friends with the actors and the director. There are perks to being close with a girl with connections." said Bella, flashing a flirtatious grin at Jaune, who merely rolled his eyes at it. "Now, the screening will begin in an hour, so how about I buy us lunch?" she asked, turning away to walk towards the platforms, not even bothering to get their reply.

Releasing a heavy sight from her lungs, Ruby sneakily pulled out her scroll and made contact with Weiss. "Did you get all of that Super-Bestie-Best-Best-Friend?" she whispered into her device's speaker, hearing the tell-tale sound of Weiss's sigh of irritation through the other end.

"Yes, Ruby, I got it. I'll be sure to notify Ren, Blake, and Nora of the proceedings. Be sure to remain in Ms. Bleu's company until the signal, understand?" she asked before adding on. "This could be our ONLY chance to be rid of that...girl and I will NOT tolerate any mistakes." said Weiss, glaring through their hideaway bush. "And next time, I'm deciding on the code-names!" she shouted, ending the conversation before Ruby could even reply.

With a heavy sigh of remorse, Ruby kicked at the ground with her boots, feeling as if the weight of the world was riding upon her shoulders. But she knew that she and her friends were the sole reason for Bella's being here and as her dad would often say, they had made their bed and it was time to lay in it. Feeling the soft but calloused hand of her sacrificial partner on her shoulder, Ruby looked up into the endless blue eyes of her friend, Jaune, who smiled like an elder brother before walking off to join Bella at the platforms. And as she, too, went to join them she felt a powerful feeling deep in the pit of her stomach as she invoked the curse that cursed many a soul before her. "What could go wrong?" she muttered to herself as she rushed to join them in the transport ship.

After several minutes aboard the transport ship, with Bella sitting dangerously close to a stone-faced Jaune, the three disembarked and heading into the city via a limo that Bella had hired earlier that day. And all through the long ride, Ruby could feel Bella glaring a hole into the back of her head. But she held strong, for now, as she continued to openly flirt with her former boyfriend while glaring at her when Jaune's vision was occupied by something else.

Finally, the limo pulled in front of a very fashionable restaurant, the kind that she'd often see in the bad romantic movies she'd watch as a kid. And as they all gracefully stepped out of the limo, several flashes from various cameras' flashes caught her vision, almost causing her to trip over her own foot. Luckily, Jaune was there to catch her but unfortunately, it gained her the hidden ire of Bella and more blinding flashes from the cameras around her.

But the flashes eventually died down and they were able to enter the restaurant but it was here that Ruby had realized just how different her world was from Bella's own. Where she'd enjoy eating cookies and watching cartoons, Bella would eat only the juiciest of prime steak and watch the opera, whatever that was. But while she was currently feeling overwhelmed by the many sights beyond her imagination, Jaune seemed almost bored of it all, as if it was nothing new to him. She'd have to remind herself to ask him of this at a later date. But for now, they had taken their seats at an elegantly dressed table with a smorgasbord of delectable food. And as much as it pained her to admit it...IT WAS SO GOOD!

Though, it was embarrassing to admit that she was not the most graceful of eaters as she had practically scarfed down the various dishes at a rapid pace. Jaune paid it no mind as he was more than used to her sporadic eating habits though Bella did not hide her disgusted outlook towards her. After satisfying her bottomless pit of a stomach, Ruby turned to scan her surroundings. It was like she'd entered a completely different world, from the classy suits the men wore to the extravagant dresses the women wore in order to one-up one another. It wasn't until she had turned her head that she saw two unknown people were chatting with Bella while Jaune watched on with boredom.

"Oh Bella, my dear, had I'd known you'd be here in Vale, I would've happily given you everything on the house!" the well-dressed man announced with boisterous laugh until his eyes met Jaune's own and his smile extended even further. "And is that young Jaune?" he asked, placing his larger calloused hand on Jaune's shoulder. Ruby watched as Jaune's bored expression changed into his natural happy-go-lucky-goofball-self as he looked up at the man with a kind smile.

"It's nice to see you again, too, Mr. and Mrs. Bloom." he said, shaking Mr. Bloom's hand and bowing his head towards Mrs. Bloom.

"My boy, do you remember what it is I said to you all those moons ago?" he asked, raising his bushy eyebrow as he crossed his massive arms over his chest.

With a smile, Jaune pushed his chair away from the table and stood before the man. To Ruby, it looked as if Jaune was about to face against a Goliath. That is, until she saw Jaune smile once again and extend his arms outward, inviting the massive man into an embrace.

"It's good to see you Uncle Wallace." he said, smiling until the man pulled him into a tight bear hug before releasing him when Mrs. Bloom 's eyes met Ruby's own.

"And who is this?" she asked aloud as the woman moved to join at her side, pulling at her arms and checking her outward appearance like a person playing with a doll while her husband watched on with mild amusement and Jaune watched with a teasing grin.

"This is Ruby, a friend of mine from Beacon. She's also the leader of Team RWBY as well." said Jaune, smiling at his first friend. "We met on our first day when she blew a crater in the school with a sneeze." he reminded, smirking as Ruby rose above her chair , slamming her palms onto the table with added force.

"I told you that was not fault!" she whinned, pouting as Jaune just laughed her complaint off. "Weiss was the one who was shaking that Dust stuff in my face in the first place!"

"Sorry, Rose, but to me you'll always be Crater Face." said Jaune, smiling as Ruby rushed to his side in an attempt to hit him with a flurry of attacks from her dainty, flailing arms.

"Say that to my face, Vomit Boy!" she shouted as Jaune took her flails with laughter.

But all the while the portly man was in deep thought. "Rose?" he asked aloud. "My dear, you wouldn't happen to be related to Summer Rose, would you?" he asked, ending the two friends' rough-housing as they both turned to look at the massive man.

"Um, yeah? She's my mom." said Ruby, watching with nervousness as Mr. Bloom smiled wider than the entirety of Mt. Glenn as he bellowed out a boisterous laugh.

"In all my years, I'd never would've imagined I'd be able to meet Summer's own daughter. And here I thought she'd be too preoccupied saving the world than settling down. Tell me, how is Summer? Is she still trying to keep Raven and Qrow from killing one another?" he asked, smiling. But upon seeing Ruby's frown and slumped shoulders, his smile faded away as a frown of remorse took it's place. "Oh...I'm so sorry, my dear..." he apologized, bowing his head as Ruby wiped away a tear from her eye as she attempted to smile despite the feelings welling up in her chest. It wasn't until she felt the arms of Mrs. Bloom wrap around her that Ruby felt a familiar feeling taking it's place in her chest.

After settling down, Ruby began to tell the two couple of her days as a huntress in training. How she and her team had taken down a Nevermore during their initiation. How she was made into a team leader and how she and her friends had almost beaten the criminal, Roman Torchwick. "Why, my dear, you must have nerves of steel to willing endanger your life on the field of battle." said the man, smiling as he twirled his mustache and beard. "Why, I remember my first time in battle." he said with a smile on his face before placing a hand on his round stomach. "Ah, I was a much more different man back in those days..." he said, sounding almost mopey until Mrs. Bloom wrapped her arms around his belly, smiling like a lovesick puppy.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Wally." she said with a smile. "I love your big belly and no matter how big you get, you'll always be my big wallflower." she said, smiling as she rose on the tips of her toes to place a peck on his round red nose.

"And I will love you forever more, my sweet cup of butter." said Mr. Bloom as he leaned down to give his wife a romantic kiss.

"Um, excuse me?" asked Ruby, raising her hand before lowering it when everyone turned to look at her. "Um, how is it that you know Jaune? I didn't know he even had an uncle." she said when Jaune turned to look at her with a smile.

"Uncle Wallace isn't really my uncle, Rubes. He and my dad used to be brothers-in-arms when they were younger." said Jaune as Mr. Bloom placed his hand on his shoulder, towering over Jaune's form like an obelisk.

"Quite right, my boy. Orville and I used to get into quite a bit of trouble back in our youth." said Mr. Bloom. "But after we had chosen to settle down, my wife and I opened this restaurant while Orville went off on more adventures. And when he called one day saying his son was going to be attending the very same academy we had once attended, I thought he was pulling my leg. And yet, here you are, as dashing as your father was when he was a young lad. Tell me, boy, is it everything you'd hoped for?" he asked, his eyes showcasing a familiar care towards Jaune that went away when Ruby spoke up, pressing her palms against the table.

"You bet he is!" she exclaimed, nearly shocking the elderly man with her rise in volume. "He's not just attending Beacon, he's the leader of Team JNPR too!"

Upon hearing Ruby mentioning the word "leader" that goliath of a man pulled Jaune into another bear hug, rubbing his mess of blonde hair with his massive hand. His boisterous laughter reverberated throughout the restaurant. After a few minutes, Mr. Bloom released his hold upon him where Mrs. Bloom came in, grabbing his head and pulling him into another tight embrace as she placed light kisses upon his soft head of hair.

"A leader, eh? You must take more after your mother than your old man." said Mr. Bloom, smiling as he patted Jaune's shoulder with his hand.

"Why do you say that?" asked Ruby when Mr. Bloom turned to smile at her, motioning for more chairs to be brought to their table. Upon one of the severs doing so, the two restaurant owners took their seats at their table as Mr. Bloom began weaving his tale of his youth with Jaune's dad.

"Believe me when I say that ole Orville was not what one might call the sharpest tack in the box but let never be unheard that what he lacked in tactical prowess, he more than made up for in loyalty and honor. Course, loyalty meant very little to him whenever we'd play those blasted drinking games Qrow always dragged us to. Why, I'm pretty sure most of this is from all of the drinks we consumed in our youth!" said Mr. Bloom, laughing aloud as he held his massive belly that jiggled with each laughter that escaped from his mouth.

And if someone had told her that Professor Port could spin a yarn longer than a King Taijitu, she would gladly hit them over the head with her glorious baby, Crescent Rose. And as much as she absolutely despised Bella with a burning passion, she was eternally grateful when she heard the psychopathic stalker's alarm going off. Silencing the man's story as they all turned to look at Bella as she reached into her purse for her scroll.

"Oh, we'd better hurry to the theater if we don't want to miss the screening." she said, pushing her chair away from the table as she readied herself. "Mr. and Mrs. Bloom, it's been such a pleasure to speak you once again. And I hope we're able to do this again soon, though hopefully with less of an entourage." said Bella, gesturing to the paparazzi that just so happened to be standing with their cameras still flashing behind Ruby's back. The gesture would make it appear that she was speaking of the paparazzi but to Jaune and Ruby, they knew that she had meant her.

Let it never be known that Bella Bleu was not someone that was so easily beaten when it came to psychological warfare. As evident when she flashed Ruby an innocent smile fit for a puppy but with an aura befitting a Beowolf.

After saying their goodbyes to the couple and paying for their bill, which Mr. Bloom quite adamantly insisted that it be on the house before reluctantly allowing Bella to pay for the meal. The three of them reentered the stretched limo where Bella was once again, attempting to openly flirt with Jaune, who continued to ignore her in favor of gazing out the window in silence. All the while, Ruby watched on in silence at the one-sided conversation before noticing Jaune's fingers were twitching with anticipation. But as much as she wanted to clock Bella in the jaw, just like Jaune, they both knew that they had to play their roles until Weiss gave them the signal. Which meant having to power through their anger towards the stalker and put on a facade for the world, just like Bella did on a daily basis.

Once their vehicle was parked in front of the movie theater, the three of them exited their limo where they were once again swarmed by various paparazzi as they attempted to blind them with their flashes. But, like before, they were able to enter the theater with little problem. But before Ruby could say a word, Bella quickly wrapped her arms around Ruby's left arm, pulling it in between her breasts as she smiled innocently at Jaune.

"Jauney-bear, would you be a sweetheart and get our refreshments? Ruby and I are going to powder our noses. We won't be but a minute." she said, pulling Ruby towards the restrooms. But when Ruby turned to stare at Jaune for help, all she saw was a smirk and a wave from the boy before he turned towards the concessions stand.

 _"You traitor!"_ she yelled within her head before resigning herself to whatever torture Bella would subjugate her with.

Upon entering the women's restroom and checking to see if there was any current occupants, Bella's angelic facade dramatically dropped like a sack of bricks off of a cliff into a boiling pit of tar as she turned to face down her target with a snarl. Ruby meekly took a step backward, yelling at herself for being frighten by a civilian when she gladly faced against a massive Nevermore just months prior. But unlike the Grimm, Bella was not something she could just decapitate and that be the end of it. If anything were to come to Bella's safety, she would kiss her dream of becoming a huntress like her mother goodbye. She could only hope that she'd live long enough for Weiss's plan to come to fruition. Though with how menacing Bella was becoming with each step she made towards Ruby, she was beginning to seriously doubt those hopes.

"Alright, spill it, twerp." Bella commanded, furrowing her trimmed eyebrows at Ruby's cowering form as she placed her right palm against the wall behind Ruby's back, making sure that it blocked her only exit point. "Why are you so intent on ruining what could possibly be my last chance to get Jaune back?" she demanded of her.

"R-R-Ruining?" Ruby asked, stuttering, as her eyes looked from side to side in order to avoid meeting Bella's own. "I don't know what you mean..." she attempted to say when Bella slammed her palm against the tiled wall, causing Ruby to flinch at the force of the sound.

"I'm only going to say this once so you'd better take every word to heart." she demanded, snarling as she moved her head closer to Ruby's own until their noses were just milometers apart from one another. "Stay out of my way or I do everything in my power to ruin not just your future but all of your miserable little minions' lives as well. Got it?" she demanded, watching with hidden glee as Ruby silently replied with rapid head movements. "Good." she said, removing her hand from the wall just as the restroom's door opened to reveal two pre-teenage girls. Upon seeing Bella's form, the two girls screeched before rushing to her side in a flurry of squeals and cheers.

"OMG! You're like totally Bella Bleu!" one of the girls exclaimed, holding her scroll as if it was a holy scripture while her friend hopped in place in an effort to channel her growing fangirlism.

"Totes! You're like my freakin' idol!" her friend readily agreed, holding her scroll much like her friend as she hopped in place.

"I'm so pleased to hear you say that!" Bella agreed, smiling as Ruby watched Bella's personality flip like a light switch.

"So, we know this is like totes annoying to ask but can we, like, get a selfie with you?" asked one of the girls as her friend agreed with an rapid but affirmative nodding of her head.

"Why, I'd be honored." said Bella, smiling that same innocent and angelic smile that had been dropped just moments earlier as she and the two girls quickly got into position and proceeded to take multiple selfies of each other.

After the three were done taking their pictures and the girls left the restroom, leaving only Bella and Ruby alone. Bella took one final glare at Ruby before turning and exiting out the very same door, leaving Ruby alone to quietly contact Weiss.

"Weiss, how much longer?" she asked, clutching her right had over her rapidly thumping heart as Weiss quickly assured her that their plan needed only a few moments longer.

"You're doing fine, Ruby. Just be sure to keep a watchful eye on Ms. Bleu's activity. I have a sinking suspicion that she might try something very soon." said Weiss as the sound of murmuring pulled her attention away from her conversation with Ruby. "I have to go but I'll call you back when everything is ready. Just hold out for a few moments longer, I promise." said Weiss, abruptly ending the call before Ruby had a chance to argue against her.

Seeing the end call sign flash on her scroll just before it's screen went dark, Ruby released a massive sigh as she leaned against the tiled wall with a dramatic slump. Her eyes casted upward as she stared into the mesh of ceiling tiles and a flickering light bulb. "You can do this, Ruby. Just remember why you're doing this." she muttered to herself. Pushing herself off of the tiled wall, Ruby made her way towards the exit and swung it open. Upon seeing Jaune was still waiting in the theater's lobby was enough to settle her rising nerves. So much so that literally ran into his arms, clutching his hoodie with aggression as she leaned closer against his chest. Almost as if she was trying to melt into his skin in hopes that she'd be able to escape from his psychotic ex-girlfriend. Feeling his own arm around her was enough to satisfy her nerves as she looked up into his eyes. And seeing his caring smile was enough to settle her fears. Even if she was his fake girlfriend for this day, she'd happily admit that any girl, sans Bella, would be lucky to have Jaune.

After calming down enough to seeming almost passable in public, the two of them quietly made their way towards screening room. Where, upon entering, they noticed one key feature. That they, including Bella, were the only occupants in the entire theater room. Seeing Bella waving at them with that fake smile and facade of happiness was almost enough to make Ruby want to call it quits and run away as far as she could with her Semblance. But she held strong as she and Jaune made their way towards Bella's choice of seating.

Afterwards, the room's light dimmed and the holographic projection came to life as flashing of images were projected onto the screen before them. No previews, no trailers for upcoming movies. Just the title "X-Ray & Vav: Dr. Diabolical & The Army of Doom!" before the title exploded in a 3D-like effect as the titular heroes, X-Ray and Vav came through the explosion wearing their trademark superhero costumes. If there was one benefit to having to act as Jaune's fake girlfriend in order to trick his former girlfriend it was this, being famous definitely had it's perks.

Though the movie was entertaining, and both she and Jaune would've loved nothing more than to witness this movie in all of it's entirety, there was one key feature that was hanging over their heads like a King Taijitu prepared to strike should they drop their guards. Though this snake had less scales and more skin, it didn't mean that it didn't have the same meaning. One head to distract while the one remained hidden, waiting for it's moment to strike.

As evident by Bella trying to get closer to Jaune, though she had tried to pass it off as the theater room was getting too cold. But unfortunately for her, Jaune was smarter than that, at least in this scenario. Say what you want but Jaune had the ability to go from the sharpest to the densest of minds. Luckily, the switch was flipped for their mission and Bella quickly found herself pouting and glaring at Ruby's frame behind Jaune's back.

Throughout the movie, both she and Jaune had repeatedly laughed louder than they'd ever laughed before. Her favorite moment was definitely watching X-Ray and Vav argue with each other after Vav turned everything slow motion while Dr. Diabolical's volcano base was exploding. She was so happy that the creators decided to make a movie.

What she wasn't happy with was Bella trying to flirt with Jaune in the middle of the freaking movie! Seriously, can this girl not control herself for a single minute!? She was practically ready to bash this girl into the wall just so she and Jaune could enjoy their movie. But, once again, she knew that she couldn't and that she just needed to hold her frustrations in until Weiss gave them the signal. Course, it didn't help quell Ruby's anger with Bella constantly making comments on Jaune's muscles. But for now, she'd hold her tongue and try to enjoy the movie with her best friend slash fake boyfriend.

As the movie ended and the credits began to roll, Bella rose from her seat, stretching her arms over her head, causing her pristine white sundress to rise just above her milky white thighs. She was obviously trying to flaunt herself for Jaune but much like before he was too preoccupied with chatting with Ruby over what had happened in the movie. Feeling frustrated, the actress quietly huffed and made her way towards the exit, no even bothering to speak up and leaving the both of them alone in the theater room. But their peace in silence was then interrupted by the chimes of Ruby's scroll. Plucking the electronic device from her pocket, Ruby smiled slightly at the picture of her partner, Weiss, on it's screen. Upon answering it, the red reaper placed it's speaker near her left ear.

"Everything is in place. Bring Ms. Bleu to the Vale City Park. We'll be waiting and make sure you push Ms. Bleu over the edge." said Weiss, ending the call before either of them could ask for more details.

Powering down her scroll, Ruby turned to look at her fellow sacrificial partner in crime. Neither spoke but both instinctively knew what the other had meant. This was their moment and it could not...would not...be wasted. So, they followed suit, plucking themselves from their comfortable theater chairs, making sure to dispose of their trash into the proper bins and made their exit.

Upon exiting the theater, they found yet another crowd of paparazzi swarming their vehicle, most likely in an attempt to gain an audience with the esteemed Mistralian actress. Once they had entered the vehicle and the blinding flashes of the crowd's cameras faded into the distance, Ruby promised to remind herself to offer her condolences to Pyrrha. Now she could see why she wasn't such a fan of being famous. Only goes to show that the life of a celebrity was a double-edged sword. You may get plenty of perks but it all came at a cost in itself. The life of a celebrity was not for everyone and Ruby was certainly sure that she was one of them.

Their ride was ridden in silence as they weaved their way through the city's traffic. And from Ruby's point of view, it was looking like Bella was only getting more and more furious with her lack of progress with Jaune. But if their plan went without fault then this would be as far as her progress would go and all it would take was the right bait.

"Bella." Jaune said, bring Bella's undivided attention to him as her eyes sparkled with hope. "Would it be alright if we, say, visited the park? I heard there's going to be a local band performing and I've been meaning to check them out." he finished saying, hiding a prideful smirk as Bella immediately notified her driver of their chance in destination before deciding to cuddle up to Jaune's side. And though he maintained an expression of content, Ruby could still tell that it was taking everything in his power not to jump out of the moving vehicle.

Talk about nerves of steel, huh?

But their mission was far from finished as their limo pulled into the park's parking area, where, upon exiting, soon found themselves being swarmed by many of Bella's fans. Some were as young as five years old, dreaming of becoming an actress much like her, while others were as old as adults. But throughout it all, Bella never released her hold on Jaune's arm, tugging at him to press them further away from Ruby's position as she tried to hurry after them.

However after few moments, the crowd reluctantly faded away from the actress and her friends, whether it was out of respect or something else was left to debate but Ruby wouldn't bother questioning it for now. So, the group made their way towards a small gazebo where several teens where preparing their set up. But it was upon closer inspection that both Ruby and Jaune realized that it was in fact the members of Team SSSN, all in different outfits.

A portion of Ruby was terrified that Bella would recognize them but upon seeing that Jaune was the object of her focus, those fears were quickly dispelled and she then resigned herself to witnessing her friend's concert and she just had one thing to say about their performance overall. It was the most awesomely, epic concrt she'd ever seen. Smoke screens! Sun shredding the electric guitar while Scarlet followed on the keytar, Neptune on the electric bass, and Sage on the drums. She had no idea her friends were such talented musicians. Though, she was definitely sure that it was Sun who had the idea and Neptune who made it possible while Scarlet and Sage just went along with their leader's crazy plans. Though she'd readily admit that their band name still needed some work and judging by the number of band names scratched out on Sage's main drum, so did they. Their current name was "A Touch Of SSSN."

Very creative, guys.

But needless to say, their time was coming and so was the ending of Team SSSN's current song. She had only been paying a little bit of attention as her focus was on Bella trying to to gain Jaune's attention though with little results. It was only after their song had ended that Sun grabbed the microphone to make an announcement, gesturing to the crowd with a flash of his adonis-like abs and a sparkle to his mischievous smile.

"Alright! We'd like to thank you guys for coming to get a touch of SSSN." said Sun, snickering as several of the crowd gave out little chuckles at the joke. "But, it's time that we made way for another. Our good friend, Jaune, has something he'd like to say to a very special girl." said Sun, smiling as Jaune untangled himself from Bella's grasp as he made his way onto the gazebo, taking the microphone from Sun's grasp and turning to face the crowd and by extent Bella.

"Um, hey, everyone...' he struggled to say, scratching the back of his head out of embarrassment before taking a deep breath and faced the crowd again. "My name is Jaune and I...I have something that I've been meaning to say to a very special girl." said Jaune, silencing himself as the crowd began murmuring to themselves while Ruby and Bella kept their eyes trained on Jaune's figure. "Every since the day I met this girl, I'd felt this strange feeling in my chest. She was everything I ever wanted to be. Brave enough to chase after her dream, no matter the difficulties she might've faced. Kind to those around her, no matter their race. Idealistic to the point of reminding me that there was more to life than just myself. And though she is different than most, I won't deny that if not for her, I wouldn't be here before you today." said Jaune, when out of the corner of his eye he spotted Nora, who was talking to Ren and Blake. He knew that this was his moment to bring it home. "I owe everything I am to her and I can only hope that she sees me in the same light. Which is why, I'd like to ask that girl a very special question." said Jaune as he took his steps down the gazebo's stairs and stood before Bella, who watched Jaune with starry eyes filled with hope. But as he turned away from her to face the girl, who had stuck with him throughout this whole ordeal, all hope dashed from Bella's eyes. "Ruby." said Jaune, smiling as Ruby looked up into his cerulean blue eyes, blushing despite knowing that this was all a ploy. Though, it certainly didn't help ease her embarrassment over it all, she still held strong even as the crowd watched her with interest and Bella glared at her with fiery rage. "I known I'm not the sharpest blade in the forge but I know with you beside me, I can take on even the toughest of Grimm. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are what I aspire to be and I hope that you will have me." said Jaune, smiling at his friend as tears streamed down her cheeks before she leaped into his arms, throwing her own arms around his neck as the two embraced in the middle of the park as the crowd cheered for them.

Though, one particular park resident was not all too thrilled over the couple's happiness. Bella was practically fuming at the sight of Jaune and Ruby being cheered on by the crowd. But as much as she tried to will herself to put on that innocent facade something snapped within her as she witnessed Ruby place a kiss on his cheek.

"You...You...BITCH!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, silencing the crowd's cheers as they all turned to witness the very same actress they'd just moments ago were trying to interact with, shouting slurs at this young couple. "Jaune is MINE! And if you think that I'm just going to let some whore take what's rightfully mine then you've got another thing coming!" she continued to shout when Jaune stepped in front of Ruby in order to protect her from Bella's wrath.

"I don't appreciate you talking that way to my girlfriend." said Jaune, springing the bait and beginning their plan. And to Ruby, it looked as if someone had just dropped a Goliath on Bella's house as she momentarily dropped her innocent facade. Her arms dropped to her sides as she stared, open-mouth, at her ex-boyfriend before turning to glare at Ruby's face, who was trying to hide behind his back for protection

But then the crazed actress began to laugh. But not just any kind of laughter, the kind a maniacal super-villain did before launching a surprise attack on the heroes. Then, without warning, she shoved the young huntress away from Jaune's side, gripping his collar before pulling him into a one-sided passionate kiss. Ruby reacted quickly as she appeared between the two of them, pulling them apart and saving Jaune from Bella craziness. Now, she stood before them, her eyes red from the tears that were now streaming down her face as she glare at them in anger.

"WHY!?" she shouted at the two, unaware that a crowd was watching the altercation from afar. "Why does it have to be her!? What makes this brat so much better than me!?" she shouted louder, drawing more unwanted attention to herself.

"Well for one, I'm not some crazy stalker!" Ruby shouted back, gaining Bella's tear-filled glare. "You've done nothing but hurt Jaune for years!" Ruby shouted outwardly, stepping in front of Jaune as she glare up into Bella's orange irises.

"You know nothing, you infantile twerp!" Bella insulted, clenching her teeth together. "Jaune and I were soulmates! Ever since he saved me from those bullies I knew that he was meant to be my knight in shining armor! But then DADDY said we needed to move to Mistral, all because of some stupid scandal!" Bella shouted, pointing her finger at Ruby's nose. "I tried to make our last night memorable but once again it was ruined by everyone else!"

"You tried to rape me!" Jaune argued back, shocking Bella enough that she took a step backward. "You've done nothing but harass, rattle, and stalk me for the better part of my childhood! I wanted to believe that there was nothing wrong with you. That you were just different from everybody else but my sisters were all right! You're nothing by a psychotic stalker! And its time that everyone saw you for what you really are!" shouted Jaune, his veins visible due to his immense levels of anger.

The crowd around them remained silent out of shock at Jaune's words. Never had they ever seen Jaune this furious with anyone, sans Cardin. But then the sound of multiple chimes rang throughout the park, causing everyone to reach into their respected pockets and pull out their scrolls. What met their visions was a collage of images that would most certainly haunt their nightmares for years to come. Various images of a child Jaune in a multitude of scenery flashed on their screens, each one with various scribbles of writing. Some reading out as innocently as "Jaune eating his favorite ice cream" to some reading out like, well a psychotic stalker, "Jaune's stained underwear". The images were almost too much for some people, heck one guy was currently vomiting into a nearby trash can. But it was the last image that had people questioning the Mistralian actress's sanity as their scrolls flashed a final image of Bella dressed in a scantily wedding dress standing in front of a passed out Jaune, who was tied to a chair in nothing but a t-shirt and a pair of boxers. The caption for the disturbing image read out "Mr. and Mrs. Arc! Wedding night!"

Suddenly, an audio track came through the speakers of every person's scroll. It was looking like their plan was working far better than they had imagined as the conversation Ruby and Bella had had in the theater's restroom echoed throughout the city of Vale. "I'm only going to say this once so you'd better take every word to heart." the audio track began, it's words having an adverse effect on Bella's emotions as her eyes widened to astronomical levels. "Stay out of my way or I do everything in my power to ruin not just your future but all of your miserable little minions' lives as well. Got it?" said the audio track before the imagine shifted into more images of Bella's sick little journal.

That was the straw that broke the Goliath's back as Bella's clawed nails dug into her palms, puncturing the skin and causing droplets of blood to spill out, when she suddenly leaped forward like a Beowolf at the object of her fury, Ruby. But the tiny huntress was more than ready as she dodge to the side before delivering a swift back kick that landed squarely on Bella's left cheek. The force was enough to send Bella to the ground but surprisingly the actress had a bit more fight in her as she stood back up before pulling out a stun gun from her purse and aim it at Ruby. But when she went to pull the trigger a familiar golden yellow bracelet flashed in the side of her vision before a tremendous force clocked her in jaw and the psychotic stalker once again found herself on the ground with a busted jaw.

Standing above her as the sun's glows radiated off of her fiery hair was Ruby's own older sister, Yang Xiao Long. Her eyes flashed red as she towered over the crying Bella, who held her jaw with her hands as tears streamed down her face and splashed on the concrete below. The crowd were stunned as they continued to look over the feeds on their scroll before another picture took it's place. It was the profile of Bella's father and herself with the same "wanted" sign beneath both of their names. Bella lookup as Jaune's other friends gathered around, all with prideful smirks.

"W-Why?" she stuttered as more tears fell to the ground.

"Simple, Ms. Bleu." Weiss spoke, standing before her with a smirk. "You messed with our friend."

"It was easy to get enough evidence to prosecute both you and your father after P-Money called in a favor with her mother back in Mistral. Turns out being on the council has a lot more perks than being a celebrity." said Yang, who crossed her arms over each other.

"And with Renny and Blakey getting access to your scroll it was a breeze getting all of your "cherished" pictures of our fearless leader onto the internet." said Nora, who stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at her.

"And now, the world will see you for what you truly are, Ms. Bleu." said Pyrrha frowning at the pathetic slump that was before her.

Suddenly, the crowd began booing at the actress as well, some throwing pieces of merchandise while others threw slurs at her crying form. But as the police came and placed their cuffs onto Bella's wrists, Jaune stepped forward, his goofy expression was gone, replaced by calm fury. And through the tears Bella smiled at her love, even though snot was threatening to fall from her right nostril.

"I love you, my knight in shining armor." said Bella, smiling even after the police pushed her form into the squad car. And still she smiled as she pressed her face against the vehicle's window, laughing all the way. "I'll see you again, my love! Nothing will separate us!" she shouted from the back of the police car as it drove off into the distance, leaving Jaune and his friends alone in the park.

The group remained in silence, even after the crowd had dispersed and the park was no longer inhabited by the crowds. There was no doubt that news of Bella's history and of her father's involvement in it's being swept under the rug would be known throughout Remnant. But to Jaune it meant more than just seeing a criminal put away. It meant that a dark part of his past was washed away. From now on, Bella would just be another bad memory that would be replaced by a good one. One that showed him that his choice to attend Beacon was the right choice. And though they were the cause of his strife, he wouldn't lie and say that if not for them then his past would still be there, looming over his shoulder. But it was when Jaune felt a tap on his shoulder that he was pulled away from his daze. He turned to face the friends he'd made at Beacon and helped rid him of a terrifying nightmare. Standing before him was little Ruby, who smiled up at him.

"Jaune." she said aloud, still smiling up at him despite what had happened. "We've been talking and we've been wanting to tell you this ever since we got Bella involved in your life." she said as she and the others all bowed their heads before him.

"We're sorry!" they all said at once before raising their heads as one to face their friend.

"We understand that what we did was beyond wrong and that we had allowed our curiosity to stand before our friendship with you. But we promise to make it up to you, no matter what! Just name it and consider it done!" she said, smiling with her chest puffed out and her arms arched on her hips.

"Ruby is correct in that, Jaune." said Ren, smiling as Nora hopped onto his back with a hyperactive smile. "We've done you a great wrong and we are willing to go through even the Grimmlands, itself, to earn back your forgiveness."

"Yeah! What Renny said! What's Team JNPR without it's fearless leader!" Nora readily agreed.

"Heck, if you want I'll even let you take bumblebee out for a joyride. I'll bet you'd make a pretty sweet daredevil, Vomit Boy...Eh, on second thought...Maybe something else." said Yang, as she quickly remembered why it was that Jaune was playfully called Vomit Boy in the first place.

"What I did was unbecoming of a Schnee and I was raised to settle me debts to those I owe. And I owe no one a bigger debt than you, Jaune." said Weiss, smiling at the boy despite their rough history together. She was rough around the edges but she was someone you could count on in life.

"You know where I stand, Jaune." Blake said simply, smiling as her bow twitched in the wind.

But then it was Pyrrha who stepped forward, facing the object of her affections. Her heart thumping a mile a minute. She had faced opponents far beyond Jaune's capabilities. But where then she felt nothing but adrenaline coursing through her veins, here she felt nervousness beyond her imagination. she would gladly fight off an army of Grimm if it meant regaining her crush's forgiveness. She'd scream her feelings to the highest peak in Remnant if he asked for it. He was quite possibly the scariest thing she'd ever face in her entire life.

"Jaune." she said, taking a deep breath as she faced her partner. "I'm scared of very little things...But what terrifies me more than anything is losing you. Both as a leader and as a cherished friend. I will gladly do anything to make what I've done up to you, even if it means losing all that I have. Bella saw you for what she thought of you but we see you for what you truly are. You are more than anything in this world. And I swear on my honor as a Nikos that I will endure even the harshest of punishments if that is what you desire."

It was here that Jaune slowly begun to realize a simple truth. Sure they had their problems and sure there were times he'd wish for them to be thrown off of a cliff. But what friends didn't have their fair share of problems? Why, if he had a penny for the number of arguments he often had with his own siblings he'd have enough to practically buy the entirety of the SDC. But they were right about one thing...It was going to take alot of effort to gain back his forgiveness. But saving him from Bella was a definite step on the right track. And so with a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye, Jaune faced his friends head on. "Then I guess it's time I start my own operation." said Jaune, smiling at his friends...and future targets.

It was time to begin "Operation: Jaune's Dastardly Revenge".

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 **Now, now, I know what you're thinking; "Was this the final chapter!? But Jaune hasn't gotten his revenge on his asshole friends! What a blueballer! This story sucks now!" And first off, harsh. Second off, there's no need to worry as I plan to enact Jaune's revenge in the sequel story "Operation: Jaune's Dastardly Revenge" which will be released in October alongside the long awaited "The Knight and The Wizard".**

 **For some background information on the story; it follows the traditional Volume 5 storyline but with a twist. Jaune is now the current host for Ozpin. Imagine having someone you hate stuck inside your head for hours on end. I decided to let it be on the shelf until Volume 6 rolled out because I wanted to plan around the story with some minor, and some major, changes. If you'd like to know more and get caught up then please check it out.**

 **As for the sequel story, "Operation: Jaune's Dastardly Revenge" will function a wee bit differently. Each chapter, sans the first and last, will focus on Jaune hunting and punishing one of his targets or friends, if you prefer the latter. And I've decided to allow you guys to pick out the targets order and their punishments. Don't worry, any and all credit will go to the person, or people, who made the idea. I figure this would be a better option as many people have been hating on Jaune's friends in this story and this would be like getting revenge via proxy. But once again, this will not be released until October as September will be the month of "Don't Mess With An Arc" & "The Arcful Dodger", both of which I recommend you all check out.**

 **So, make sure to check back when "Operation: Jaune's Dastardly Revenge" begins it's debut in October!**

 **Till next time!**


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